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Walt Weiskopf – Overdrive (Posi-Tone, 2014)

 

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After a string of well-received dates on the Criss Cross imprint, and a one-off for the Capri label, tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf arrives at Posi-Tone with this pleasing sextet date. The music on Overdrive is all original, save for the penultimately-placed cover of Michel Legrand‘s “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?,” and it affirms Weiskopf’s commitment to (mostly) high energy, no-nonsense jazz.

With saxophone, vibraphone, guitar, piano, bass, and drums, this band can be looked at from two different angles: It’s a saxophone-fronted group with an expanded rhythm section, but it’s also an outfit with a saxophone-vibraphone-guitar front line and a standard piano trio rhythm section. It functions both ways, but the latter scenario, which generates the most heat, is the primary mode of operation for this band.

Overdrive hits most of the stylistic targets that listeners have come to expect from modern jazz recordings. Weiskopf locks in with vibraphonist Behn Gillece as the impressive-and-angular “Like Mike” unfolds; he visits in on the blues in Coltrane-esque fashion during “Night Vision”; he delivers a reflective ballad in the form of “Jewel And A Flower,”; and he works the funky-and-choppy angle on the title track. Weiskopf also shows himself to be an exciting and tireless soloist on numbers like the burning “Four Horsemen,” but he’s hardly the only soloist of note on this date. Gillece gets ample space to cut loose, guitaristYotam Silberstein contributes a delightfully devious solo on “Overdrive,” and pianistPeter Zak shines on the peppy “Midwinter Night’s Dream.”

While Weiskopf covers ground that’s often tread upon, he does so in his own way, and his music still offers plenty of surprises. The aforementioned soloists throw curveballs into the mix, “Like Mike” takes a surprising loping swing turn during its final minutes, and “What Are Your Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” is streamlined, metrically altered, and stripped of sentimentality. This is music that meets and defies expectations all at once.

 

 

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Walt Weiskopf – Overdrive

BY PETER BACON on 11 JUNE 2014 • ( 0 )

(Posi-Tone PR8126)

Despite the fact that this is his 14th album as leader, Weiskopf might be best known outside of pure jazz circles as the current tenor saxophonist of choice for Steely Dan. As a successor to such luminaries of the most elegantly curved crook as Chris Potter,  Pete Christlieb, Tom Scott and Michael Brecker, you can expect the right mix of power and meticulousness, and that is just what you get.

There is a moment in Like Mike, the second track on this sextet set, when the band goes into a set of Dannish chords, and Weiskopf is joined in the improvisational melee by guitarist Yotam Silberstein, but elsewhere his sometime employers are not discernible as an influence.

All the tunes are Weiskopf originals apart from a Latin-tinged What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

This is straight-ahead, modern jazz with loads of fast, muscular playing, though the pace does relax forJewel And A Flower, and for Waltz For Dad. The addition of Behn Gillece’s vibraphone to the piano trio and guitar band provides some tasty timbres, and Gillece is especially flavourful on the Waltz.

I doubt Weiskopf will ever reach the popular heights of those Dan predecessors – he is more engaged in educational stuff a lot of the time – but this is still a most enjoyable cruise in overdrive with lots of space to showcase the leader’s no-bullshit approach.

 

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In his twenties during the 80s, sax ace Walt Weiskopf was already good enough to play for Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Frank Sinatra, but he’s better known as being a member of Steely Dan’s touring band since 2003, and was prominent on that band’s last album, Everything Must Go. That’s him with the memorable aside that kicks off the title song, a Steely Dan saxophone moment the ranks alongside ones by Wayne Shorter, Phil Woods, Pete Christlieb and Chris Potter.

Weiskopf has been more than a valuable sideman, he’s been a composer and leader in his own right at least since his debut Simplicity in ’93, and he’s since produced a string of solid albums in the post-bop vein, including his last one, a live document we savored called Walt Weiskopf Quartet: Live.

Three years after that, Weiskopf is back with his 14th long player, his first for Posi-Tone Records that he calls Overdrive (out June 10, 2014).

If you know about Weiskopf and about Posi-Tone, you know that this is a match made in heaven. The label has a reputation for issuing jazz records of the crisp, melodic and swinging straight-ahead kind, and that’s this saxophonist’s specialty. Save for a lissome, waltzing cover of Michel Legrand’s ballad “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?”, Overdrive it’s all sturdy, engaging Weiskopf compositions, full of well-considered updates on the classic bop form.

 

That means plenty of rapid, twisting and sharp heads played in unison, such as the ones that launch “Like Mike,” “Four Horsemen” and “No Biz” They’re typically followed by Weiskopf tearing off into solos that prowess, fragility and nuance, often in the proud tradition of both Rollins and Coltrane but with own chunky tone.

Weiskopf has good choices in who to pair up with on those unison runs. Guitarist Yotam Silberstein and the vastly underrated vibraphonist Behn Gillece do a great job in not only taking turns riding shotgun on those wild rides up and down scales but also push the leader with accomplished solos of their own, along with pianist Peter Zak. David Wong and Donald Edwards supply rock solid rhythm section support.

The post-bop formula is tweaked enough to accommodate some pleasant change ups like the swinging minor key blues number “Night Vision,” the four movement “Waltz For Dad” that features some unusual chord changes, and especially the title song. “Overdrive” has enough rich complexity in the intro alone to leave even his erstwhile employers Walter Becker and Donald Fagen impressed. The main body of song has a rock feel to it, mostly in its gait, but also found in the rough edges of Silberstein’ guitar solo.

Did I mention that Weiskopf is also an author? He’s written a half dozen books on advanced improvisation. But for demonstration purposes, it’s best to spin up one his records and Overdrive is a fine place to start.