You know you’re getting something special at an event when leader/bassist Eric Revis takes a night off from his regular stint with Branford Marsalis to admit to the audience “being here is an opportunity to have good musicians and friends play songs from my own albums that I don’t even really know myself”.
Well, the audience got to know them this special night as Revis with his team of Orrin Evans/p, Tina Raymond/dr and Caleb Curtis/as-tp delivered a 90 minute set that spotlighted Revis’ composing and arranging skills as well as his deft bass work.
The evening began with a cozy chat between emcee LeRoy Downs and Revis, discussing the life of a jazz musician during a time of migration of artists going from coast to coast. After that, the band joined on stage, with Revis (as with most of the tunes) opening up the piece “Anamnesis” with a spacious and intricate solo that suddenly got jolted by an aggressive entry by Raymond and Evans, leading into fiery alto solo by Curtis that took the band into multiple side routes. From there, Revis produced a relentless and bluesy pattern, eventually joined in by Raymond as the team created an agitated rubato under Evans’ dark chords and Curtis’ breathy mist on “Earl and the 3/5ths Compromise”. Evans piano work was gorgeously sonata-like on his spotlight during the lyrical “Phi”, with Revis leading the band with strong and thick pickings and strokes as Raymond built the team up to a declaratory climax before the team softly landed to a waft of a close.
“Bacon and Eggs” was a bass led drone that had a bit of an Irish jig combined with Evans’ Monkish angles, gradually ascending to an incendiary bolero of a climax.
The most gentle moment of the evening was a take of Charlie Haden’s “First Song” that included Evans’ classy and emotive area, eventually going uptown with Revis before Raymond’s brushes evocatively guided the band to a gallant Curtis, closing the piece with an oceanic foam.
Raymond displayed her wares and charms introducing the galloping “Vimen” that included Revis almost sawing his bass in half with his bow before using a drum stick for extra effect and then combing both features as Curtis switched back and forth between sax and trumpet for a visceral journey that had the tune end with a 400 grade sandpaper finish. Clippety-clopping and soloing on the Monkish “Tainted”, Raymond led the bluesy stroll before Evans closed things up with a striding intro to a comfort food take of “Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out”.
Yes, you can see Revis on tour with Marsalis at large venues like CSUN’s The Soraya, but real jazz is captured in the personal and spontaneous confines of places like Mr. Musichead. The joys of jazz were well presented this autumn evening in Hollywood.
Upcoming shows at Just Jazz’s events include 10/27 Simon Mueller, 10/28 Dave McMurray, 11/01 Casey Benjamin and 11/03 Joshua Crumbly