Brian Lynch Quintet featuring Charles McPherson

Torch Bearers

Hollistic Music Works

Bebop lives!!  Torch Bearers, from fiery trumpeter Brian Lynch and living legend, alto saxophonist, 86-year-old Charles McPherson, carries on the form’s legacy. This is a luminous session that features vocalist Samara Joy on two tracks, along with the bass-drum tandem of Boris Kozlov and Kyle Swan. Kozlov is a frequent Lynch collaborator, as is pianist Orrin Evans, who shares the piano chair with long-time McPherson associate, Rob Scheiderman. Another Lynch associate, pianist Luis Perdomo, along with drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., appears on one track. Both Lynch and McPherson compose three pieces, one each for Joy, McPherson’s “The Joy of  Love,” and Lynch’s “Pursuit of a Dream.” The album was recorded in the hallowed space of Van Gelder Studios. This is Lynch’s 26th album as a leader.

The session takes its spirit from the teachings of the late pianist and educator Barry Harris, of whom McPherson was one of his first students and Joy one of his last. McPherson, quoted in Ted Panken’s liner notes, says that Harris insisted on applying bebop principles in today’s world with contemporary harmonic and rhythmic information. As you probably know, McPherson is among the last musicians to have witnessed Charlie Parker playing live, and has picked up that mantle ever since, going on to play with Charles Mingus from 1960-74. Lynch need not shirk from his pedigree either, having played in both Art Blakey and Horace Silver’s bands. Separately, Joy and Lynch have formed a strong partnership with Lynch co-producing Joy’s third Grammy-winning effort, Portrait. When McPherson moved to San Diego in the late ‘70s, he crossed paths with Lynch in jam sessions. For decades, the two have longed ot record together, and it finally happened with this – heck, let’s call it a historic session.

Bebop is what moved jazz away from the popular, swinging dance music of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Pioneered by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and a young Charles Mingus, the form is characterized by dizzying fast tempos, complex harmonies, intricate and daring improvisations, small combos, and the conventional head-solo-solo-head structure. (Forgive me if you knew all of that, but we are eighty-plus years removed from its origins.)

These traits are evident in Lynch’s pieces, “Luck of the Draw” and “Kyle’s Dilemma.” The former features Evans’ dependable, sturdy comping and inspired, flowing solos from the two co-leaders. The latter, with Schneiderman on piano, features the groove shaped by Kozlov and Swan. Note the unison lines in the head, superbly executed by Lynch and McPherson, before the fiery solos ensue, Schneierman’s bright turn among them.

McPherson’s pieces, “The Juggler” and “7-24,” are more dramatic, a bit less heated, but are melodically intriguing and harmonically different, with Lynch playing flugelhorn on “7-24” over Evans’ piano and his inventive soloing, along with Kozlov’s. Schneiderman holds up his end on “the Juggler,” a more traditional bebop track that boasts perhaps McPherson’s most inspired moments.

Samara Joy’s presence is somewhat symbolic, meaning that bebop and Harris’s teachings bridge generations. She brings her ‘A’ game to every performance, as we well know by now.  Also, as Parker proved with his landmark Parker with Strings, and Monk with “Ruby My Dear,’ to cite two examples, there were ballads rendered by bebop artists too. Lynch shines on flugelhorn on “The Joy of Love,” as do McPherson and Evans. “Pursuit of a Dream” features Perdomo and Owens Jr.

Standards are vital to this repertoire, as we hear the stellar lyrical aspects of these masters in “But Beautiful.” They also honor Harris directly in his “Luminescence” and send us off with one of the most famous bebop tunes in the canon, Dizzy Gillespie’s “Blue N Boogie.”

Ironically, this doesn’t feel like a retro record because of its fresh, brimming vitality. That’s exactly the way Barry Harris would want it.

• Jim Hynes

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