Taru Alexander - Echoes of the Masters (January 7, 2022 Sunnyside Records)

In the jazz community, there are individuals who come to the music as a birthright. There are countless musical families whose members continue to pass the gift of music on from generation to generation. Drummer Taru Alexander was endowed with music by his father, saxophonist Roland Alexander, and an extended family of professional musician mentors in his native Brooklyn, New York.

The younger Alexander celebrates the legacy of his father and his father’s peers on his new recording, Echoes of the Masters, a collection of pieces by well-known jazz composers performed by an outstanding group of musicians who came of age under the tutelage of legendary performers on the bandstand.

Taru Alexander was born into the music. His father, Roland, began taking him to gigs at 3 years old. The boy was entranced by the drums and began to pick them up naturally before he was 10. By the time he was 13 years old, Alexander was performing alongside his father and bass legend Reggie Workman, with whom he studied at Brooklyn’s famed New Muse School in Crown Heights. Further study with drummers Rudy Collins, Andre Strobert, Walter Perkins, and La Guardia Music & Art’s Justin DiCioccio prepared Alexander for life as a professional drummer.

A lifetime of musical experience has imbued Alexander with the skills, the knowledge, and the swagger to play jazz as it should be played. His credentials spread from bands led by Roy Hargrove, Gary Bartz, Carlos Garnett, and many more, so when he was considering who should join him on his new recording, Alexander wanted to include other musicians who had truly paid their dues.

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, pianist James Hurt has been a focal part of the New York jazz scene since he arrived in 1994. Among many ensembles, Hurt was a member of Roland Alexander’s band, where he met Taru Alexander. Hurt also performed with groups led by Abbey Lincoln, Sherman Irby, Russell Gunn, and many others.

Alexander met saxophonist Antoine Roney and bassist Rashaan Carter on a recording session led by saxophonist Michael Marcus in 2008. Alexander was so impressed that he made note to contact them when he was able to record on his own. Roney has been a stalwart leader and sideman in New York alongside fantastic musicians like Jacky Terrasson, Donald Byrd, John Patton, and his brother, Wallace Roney. Carter carries the history of the jazz bass on his shoulders having studied with Buster Williams, Reggie Workman, and Ron Carter. He continues to be one of the strongest players in New York.

During the pandemic, Alexander reached out to these stalwart musicians to be his band of certified players on his new album.

The recording launches into gear with a high octane take of the elder Alexander’s “Change Up,” a piece penned in the 1970s that bridges the gap between the earlier generation’s verve with the younger generation’s swagger. Taru Alexander’s drums propel the quartet with great solos from Roney and Hurt. Thelonious Monk and Coleman Hawkins’s “I Mean You” adds guest vocalist HANKA to the quartet for this swinging rendition of the classic tune, which is followed by Buster Williams’s “Deception” performed in a firey rendition.

Roland Alexander wrote “Kojo Time” for his son at the time of his birth and while the father was in Europe, the echo of a European ambulance signaling the to be drummer’s arrival can be heard in the theme. Alexander fell in love with McCoy Tyner’s “Peresina” from the pianist’s Expansions record, wearing it out after regular listens. The quartet honors the piece with an expansive reading with gorgeous features for the entire band. The recording concludes with Wayne Shorter’s “Pinocchio,” Hurt’s ambient piano leading to an up-tempo ensemble romp over Alexander’s persistent beat.

On Echoes of the Masters, Taru Alexander creates an aural tribute to his father, the great Roland Alexander, and the tremendous musicians who passed the tradition down to him and the future generations through their impact on the bandstand and their examples off of it. 

1. Change Up

2. I Mean You

3. Deception

4. Kojo Time

5. Peresina

6. Pinocchio

Taru Alexander - drums

Antoine Roney - tenor saxophone

James Hurt - piano

Rashaan Carter - bass

Hanka G. - vocalist (track 2)

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Gerry Eastman Trio - Trust Me

Guitarist Gerry Eastman revitalizes the classic organ trio with Greg Lewis and drummer Taru Alexander.

Trust Me features Eastman’s memorable originals along with consistently inventive solos.

Gerry Eastman has long had an original sound and style on the guitar. While there are moments where his tone may briefly recall George Benson or Wes Montgomery, his improvising is always adventurous without losing its bluesiness.

 

On Trust Me, Eastman along with organist Greg Lewis and drummer Taru Alexander provide a fresh spin on the classic jazz organ trio with their individual sounds, solos, and inventive interplay. They perform eight of the guitarist’s originals and, while the music swings and grooves soulfully, it is far from predictable. Eastman provides a variety of rich melodies, his chord changes are original, and each of the musicians contributes to the music’s surprising twists and turns.

 

“Trust Me” begins the program with a number that is both bluesy and utterly unpredictable. While the music is accessible to those who love the sound of the organ trio, this brand of modern soul jazz will keep one guessing “St. Marteen Swing” has a memorable melody and an infectious groove, along with burning guitar and organ solos.

 

“Native Son,” which was the title cut of Eastman’s 1992 album, is taken out-of-tempo with the guitarist contributing a statement that is both thoughtful and passionate, inspired by the intense playing of Lewis. “Learn From Yoiur Mistacks” is a purposeful swinger while “Just A Matter Of Time” may have a fairly simple melody but the performance keeps on taking unexpected left turns. The conversational “Distant Lover,” a rollicking “Dance One,” and the infectious “Cuban Sunset” conclude the memorable set, performances that have no slow moments or coasting from the all-star trio.

Gerry Eastman was born and raised in New York, and as a youth learned to play guitar, bass and drums. He studied at Cornell University and Ithaca College and has been working constantly ever since. Eastman was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in 1986, and recorded with altoist Joe Ford (in Birthright), flutist Reynold Scott, the Contemporary Composer’s Orchestra, trumpeter Cullen Knight, drummer Nasar Abadey, and singer Karen Francis in addition to the Basie band. The guitarist has led at least six albums of his own and his sidemen have included such notables as James Spaulding, Frank Foster, Jimmy Owens, Hank Crawford, Archie Shepp, David Murray Robin Eubanks, Sumi Tonooka, Patience Higgins, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Regina Carter, and Andy Bey, among others. In 1981 he founded the Williamsburg Music Center in Brooklyn and he has served as its president and artistic director for the past 40 years. The organization consistently achieves its goal of providing a forum and a welcoming atmosphere for African-American and African music including jazz, funk, r&b and spoken word.

 

As an organist and pianist, Greg Lewis has made a very strong impression on the modern jazz scene. He started on the piano when he was 11 and as a teenager was playing professionally in the New York area. Lewis studied with Gil Coggins and Jaki Byard, worked with blues singer Sweet Georgia Brown, has led his own trio, and even had a role during the first season of the television series Sex and the City. Lewis’ best known recording as a leader is Organ Monk.

 

Drummer Taru Alexander (the son of tenor-saxophonist Roland Alexander), started playing drums when he was seven, worked with his father’s quintet as a teenager, and started recording when he was 16. He has since played with the who’s who of modern jazz including Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Rodney Kendrick, Branford Marsalis, Eric Alexander and countless others. 

 

Gerry Eastman’s Trust Me, arguably the guitarist’s strongest recording, not only introduces many of his rewarding originals but brings the organ trio into the 21st century. 

1. Trust Me 

2. St Marteen Swing 

3. Native Son 

4. Learn From Yoiur Mistacks 

5. Just A Matter Of Time 

6. Distant Lover 

7. Dance One 

8. Cuban Sunset 

Gerry Eastman - Guitar

Greg Lewis - Organ

Taru Alexander - Drums

PREORDER