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Some people consider Leroy Jones to be a New Orleans-style, traditional jazz trumpeter. However, ever since he began blowing his horn on Bourbon Street, there have been those moldy figs who've said he played too modern to be considered a classic jazz musician.
Since Jones is renowned as being the first member and leader of Danny Barker's legendary and influential Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, went on to establish the Hurricane Brass Band and has recorded leading brass outfits, others believe that brass is his main squeeze. Nationally, most people probably recognize the trumpet player for his years swinging modern with Harry Connick Jr.'s band. Then again locally, he's regularly heard singing and playing at traditional jazz havens like Preservation Hall and the Palm Court. Meanwhile, fans gather around the stage at d.b.a. to hear him weave his magically modern interludes behind vocalist John Boutte.
Jones isn't a musician who can easily be pegged. Simply put, he's just an excellent trumpeter.
On his new album, the truly beautiful, "Sweeter Than a Summer Breeze," Jones waxes romantic on ballads both old and new. Appropriately, he celebrates the release at Donna's on February 14, Valentine's Day.
With the accent on romance, Jones chooses to utilize the flugelhorn with its warm mellow tone, setting aside his trumpet except for two cuts - his original, "Katrina" and the standard, "Willow Weep for Me." "It has the proper voice for delivering a ballad," says Jones, who has been blowing the instrument since he bought his first one in 1983.
The mood is further set by the addition of strings for which Jones did all of the arrangements. For the recording, he "stacked" the string parts, performed by violinist Matt Rhody and cellist Helen Gillet, to achieve a 10-piece string section. This provides Jones, the only horn player in the group that includes guitarist Todd Duke, bassist Mitchell Player, and drummer Bunchy Johnson, a wonderfully lush backdrop. Standing alone at the center of the music, Jones' absolute tonal perfection is in even greater evidence.
"I take all of the music seriously," the trumpeter says of his approach. "Music soothes the savage beast and does not disturb him."
Jones calls opening the CD with the lovely tune "Yesterdays," a song that also begins the legendary trumpeter Clifford Brown's noted album, "Clifford Brown with Strings," as very coincidental. He does give Brown reverence in offering a heartfelt rendition of "I Remember Clifford." Jones also offers props to a lesser-known trumpeter, Billy Butterfield, performing the tune "Melancholy Serenade." As a teenager, Jones says he stumbled across the record in his parent's substantial record collection. It was written by comedian Jackie Gleason and was used as the theme song for his show. "I knew him (Butterfield) before I knew Clifford Brown. Actually, my first influences on trumpet were Herb Alpert and Hugh Masekela. They were playing them on the radio. It wasn't really New Orleans things that inspired me to play jazz."
Jones finds string orchestration similar to arranging for horns. It makes sense when he points out that strings work well when sustained notes, those held out for two to four bars, are required. "Strings don't really need to take a breath," he offers with a laugh. "Strings are so mellow and heavenly. If you have something nice and you add strings, they finish it off perfectly."
At Jones' Valentine's Day performance at Donna's he will play many of the tunes from the CD though without strings. He looks forward to one day being able to present the music as heard on the album, but says that was not his aim in recording it.
"If I never get to tour with a band with strings, that doesn't matter to me. If I do, that's great. I document my music. Being an independent artist, I'm able to do whatever I want to do. The main purpose of my recording is showing my development as a musician, an arranger and composer and hoping that some people, especially in this city, recognize my talent."
Jones closes with "Sweeter than a Summer Breeze," a tune that stands as an equal to the great classics on the CD like "My One and Only Love." The melody, like those standards, remains memorable, his trumpet sings with gorgeous flawlessness above the enriching string arrangements. "Sweeter than a Summer Breeze" whispers beauty, romance and the gentle moods of jazz.
Loueke's 'Karibu' Means Welcome
Lionel Loueke, a guitarist from the West African country of Benin, is perhaps best recognized locally for having played and recorded with Terence Blanchard. He was heard on the Grammy-winning trumpeter's outstanding 2003 CD, "Bounce" and has also recorded with such giants as pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, both of whom appear on Loueke's strong, Blue Note debut release "Karibu." The word means welcome in Swahili, an attitude that well-describes the spirit of the music that blends the modernism of jazz and African roots.
New Orleans is, indeed blessed to extend its own "karibu" to Loueke when he arrives at Snug Harbor for a two-night stand at Snug Harbor on Thursday and Friday, February 12 and 13, 2009. The guitarist heads the multi-cultural trio heard on the album with bassist Massimo Biolcati who grew up in Sweden and Italy and Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth. The New York Times described a recent performance by this same group as "stunning."
While Loueke says that he doesn't consider himself a singer, he does break into song following a few bars of a melodically and rhythmically lilting intro on the inviting title cut. Most often, he limits his vocalizations to a kind of humming and tongue clicking that coincide with his creative guitar passages. This element adds a human quality that further warms his work making it accessible despite its complexities. Loueke's superior sidemen are one with him technically, spiritually and emotionally. They wind up having much fun on the danceable, juju-styled "Nonvignon," that joyously closes an album that could be considered Afro-jazz but in actuality realizes no borders.
This article was originally published in the February 09, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper |
