Bossa Meets Blues: a Wonderful Collaboration for Valerie Gillespie and Daniel Harris
I try — “really and truly try” — to write about music in the third person, when I can. But music is so emotional and wraps you up in so many ways that often there is no way to avoid the personal approach. Like, for instance, when a band makes you cry — weep — four times in their first set. Seriously.
I’ve known guitarist Daniel Harris for 20 years, beginning with his tenure with the wonderful jazz and R&B band The Swinging Johnsons and later in a duet with Johnsons bass player T-Bone Hamilton. To this day, I’ve never heard a better version of “Autumn Leaves” than the one the Johnsons used to knock out on a regular basis.
I’ve had the pleasure of hearing reeds master Valerie Gillespie for 30 years, with the USF big band, Chuck Owens’ Jazz Surge, and her own groups. And she discovered that she has a lovely voice and uses it to great advantage.
So, when Tim Wright and I had her on our radio program on WMNF, The Colors of Jazz, for a wonderful interview, Gillespie mentioned an upcoming program called Bossa Meets Blues, collaborating with Harris. Then Harris sent me a flyer about the program. Yep, we’re going.
This was our first time visiting the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin FL. And it is in the firehouse! But don’t let that fool you. They had a lovely setup inside with communal tables and reasonably priced beverages and a great atmosphere. And I will laud praise later about the sound engineer, Steve. Joe Hervey, live music coordinator, and his staff offer a number of programs throughout the year, and it’s for certain we’ll be back.
Gillespie and Harris had assembled the perfect backing trio in Chris Rottmayer on keyboards, Steve Boisen on the double bass, and Dave Rudolph on drum kit. For many of the tunes, the solo order was either Harris, Gillespie and Rottmayer or Gillespie, Harris and Rottmayer.
After a brief introduction from Gillespie, who is a true showman, they dug into Kenny Dorham’s “Blue Bossa.” Tears appeared shortly thereafter. It was gorgeous. Gillespie was on alto sax, and the trio sounded superb. Gillespie then explained the program for the evening, announcing Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’,” remarking about the lyrics added by Jon Hendricks. Gillespie sang this one and played alto as well, and Harris gave the song its blues stamp. Yep, more tears.
They offered Jobim’s “Wave,” tears flowing the moment Gillespie added her flute to the vibe the others had already created. “All Blues,” the Kind of Blue jazz staple, was another vocal, and this one highlighted Boisen on bass. Rottmayer had already displayed magnificent chops on the previous tunes, but his piano tinkling on the last stanza was truly superb.
Pretty sure I used up the remainder of my tears on Claire Fischer’s “Morning.” Soprano saxophone is by far my favorite of the woodwinds (don’t tell the others), but not everyone can play it properly (and definitely NOT that dude). “Morning” is a spectacular composition to begin with, but Gillespie’s entrance on soprano released a floodgate.
All the while, Harris was up in the mix. His work comping in the background was as impressive as his solo work. He took a nice turn on a swinging version of “Twisted,” the Wardell Gray tune so wonderfully transformed with Annie Ross’s lyrics, Gillespie again singing. Boisen had a tremendous arco bass solo (with bow). The first set closed with Gillespie singing one of her originals, “Once Again.”
Harris has always been a Wes Montgomery fan, and here he reprised a song he often played with The Swinging Johnsons, “Road Song,” Gillespie on alto again. Following that was a Serio Mendes composition sung by Gillespie called “So Many Stars.” Rottmayer owned this one, especially his piano work near the end of the song.
They took “Blue Monk” to New Orleans, Rudolph in charge of the second line. Next Gillespie told us about the tune considered to be the first bossa nova tune, “Chega de Saudade (No More Blues);” she sang and (thankfully) picked up the soprano again. Her scatting was lovely.
Harris had another Montgomery showcase on “West Coast Blues,” also singing. He had perhaps his best solo of the night on Blue Mitchell’s “Fungii Mama.” Somewhere along the line here (my notes are inconclusive), they turned Rudolph loose for a couple of purposeful drum solos.
Gillespie lamented that they were already past the bewitching hour, but the packed house was having none of that. Harris then talked about his love for blues master Freddie King and this gosple-tinged tune, which Rottmayer opened on organ, taking us, as Harris requested, “to church.”
That was the perfect capper to a wonderful — if teary — evening.
The sound engineer, Jeff Knauff, records every program performed at FCC. He edits them down to one-hour shows and airs them on a small community radio station in the Sun City-Ruskin area. He has offered to share his recordings with WMNF and MusicFestNews. We look forward to sharing those in the near future.
[SET ONE: Blue Bossa, Moanin’, Wave, All Blues, Morning, Twisted, Once Again; SET TWO: Road Song, So Many Stars, Blue Monk, Chega de Saudade (No More Blues), West Coast Blues, Fungii Mama, Same Old Blues]