So, what do you get when you mix a 79 year old hard bop drumming pioneer like Tootie Heath with Ethan Iverson of the popular trio The Bad Plus? Well, along with bassist Ben Street, you get a cooking recent release (Tootie’s Tempo) that brings you back to all that is good and fun with jazz. In town for a couple of days, the trio treated the packed Blue Whale to a musical marriage that was included things old, new, borrowed and blue.
Setting up a groove with hand cymbals as he cozily sat in his drum set, Heath opened with a delicately cool breeze of “Bags’ Groove” that had Street’s pulse and Iverson’s piano create a deep and warm rivulet of gentle swing. Playfulness came into the occasion as a version of “Bye-Ya” had Iverson digging into his inner Monk so deeply that it carried over into a highly Spherical reading of “Memories of You”. After just three tunes, Heath had already given a workshop on setting down a rhythm as he’d used his a) hands on the cymbals b) fingers on the drums c) mallets on the drums and cymbals d) brushes on the drums and then brushed off the cymbals as if cleaning off the last speck of dust to an startingly syncopated effect. WHEW!
Heath and Street rumbled like a slow PCH rock slide on “Con Alma” while Iverson created Ellingtonian jungle growls on his piano during an exotic “Caravan.” His deft and shark skin suited touch on the crisp “Along Came Betty” had the band strutting and marching in high step form while Heath’s sticks skipped like a flat stone on Lake Superior. Closing with an astonishing take of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Heath mixed a vintage Soul Train disco beat with Street while Iverson in his Bad Plus gadfly tendencies mixed disco with a deftly Bach-influenced reading of the actual melody. The span of 250+ years was bridged in a matter of 88 keys, one bass and one drum set, just in the right set of hands-no small feat this side of The Smithsonian. Music that spans generations, styles and cultures is the stuff of inspiration, as this band gave the fans plenty of this full mooned Saturday night in LA.
Upcoming shows at the Blue Whale include Josh Nelson/Sara Gazarek July 17 and Jason Lindner July 18-19