In the News

Bassist Jeff Fuller Holds Down The Fort

February 2nd, 2015

It seems that jazz makes headlines these days in one of two ways: either a player or a fan declares the genre dead or a critic snipes at the genre and the tradition. It can be easy to forget that jazz is a tradition that’s practiced to this day, in live concerts and on recordings, with interpretations of standards or new compositions altogether.

On his latest release, The Call From Within — to be celebrated tomorrow with a gig at the 9th Note on Orange Street — New Haven bassist and composer Jeff Fuller hasn’t forgotten.

The Call From Within is a lengthy exposition in the time-honored piano trio format. It’s his first album of all original compositions, and it is a pleasure to hear his voice as a composer filtered through so many facets of the jazz tradition across the tunes — from samba and Latin jazz to some ballad-like touches and a few good jazz waltzes, with a little bebop and postbop harmonic sensibility sprinkled throughout.

The album kicks off with the slightly uneasy swing of “We Friends,” a reworking of the standard “A Beautiful Friendship.” Fuller calls this a contrafact, a reharmonized approach to an existing tune, and the result is a sense of unplaceable familiarity if you know the source tune. This works to good effect in “Friends” and the following tune, “Coraçao e Alma” (a samba riff on Hoagy Carmichael’s “Heart and Soul”), as both versions demonstrate an understanding of the source material as well as an adventurous sense of melody.

The other two contrafacts, engaging with Gershwin and Fats Waller, are somewhat less successful. The performances are stellar throughout, including Darren Litzie’s bluesy turns at the piano on “Ain’t Ain’t Misbehavin.” But there’s less of Fuller’s distinct mark — unlike on the titular final track, which Fuller performs solo on the piano with a steady rhythm and some wonderful harmonic exploration throughout its short length. It’s a nice encapsulation of the traits we hear throughout the album, and Fuller’s piano chops are impressive. Though given how good the trio is on the rest of the album, I wonder why they didn’t get a chance with this tune.

The piano trio is a versatile format, capable of a steady propulsion heard often on this disc, but also of stretching out into more orchestral territory; think Bill Evans or Brad Mehldau. “Where Did April Go,” one of Fuller’s more ambitious arrangements, begins with a lengthy, singing bass solo from Fuller. It’s a rare moment of unaccompanied bass for an album led by a bassist, and the playing is especially confident and full. When the other instruments join nearly two minutes in, the sound of Fuller’s initial exploration is still resonating.

The band locks in similarly on “Two Months Pass,” a mid-tempo composition with some real dynamic tension. In this tune the sense of the instruments’ roles is more ambiguous than anywhere else on the album. When a drum solo from Ben Bilello emerges, from a series of accents into well-chosen phrases, the transition is smooth and unobtrusive, one facet of a unit rotating into place. The Wayne Shorter-inspired “One For All” is similarly effortless, even as the band navigates a complex tune through a few different time signatures. The greater length allows both Fuller and Litzie a chance to stretch out a bit more in their solos, and each member of the tight band responds to one another’s provocations with confidence. The tune is a standout of the album.

My one frustration with the album is that its best tracks — patient tunes like “June Bug” that give the band some room to stretch out dynamically and rhythmically — make some of the more upbeat, traditional tunes like “Don’t Look Now” seem a little blunt in contrast, even as both tunes bear the same level of musicianship throughout. But this is where a consideration of a jazz recording becomes a series of “what-if” questions as much as a document of a group, since so much is connected to choices the band made in the moment, and perhaps would never make again in the same way. Anyway, many of these questions are irrelevant given the level of musicianship on display throughout the album.

The New Haven Independent, January 30, 2015