Category: Reviews

www.jazzchicago.net

Uptown
Posi-tone Records
Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Avi Rothbard, guitar; Gary Versace, organ; Jason Brown, drums.

Britain-born Wayne Escoffery teams with Israeli-born Avi Rothbard for many of the original compositions on this recording. The music is mainly straight-ahead, and the musicians find an easy groove on practically all the songs and stick with it. Escoffery notes that his influences are Coltrane, Rollins, Shorter, and a few others but he reminds me more of Stanley Turrentine in his ability to stay in that middle range and sustain the listener’s interest in his playing. From the opening piece, “No Desert,” to the real final one, “Maya’s Waltz,” Rothbard is his trusted companion. Rothbard is particularly strong on that opening piece, along with Versace. On organ, Versace truly finds a bluesy groove for the instrument on the ballad “You Know I Care,” allowing Escoffery to takes his time and let the music develop, no matter the quicken improvisational direction Rothbard brings into the piece, playing for awhile as if he owned it. Throughout each selection, the Latin-tinged “Cross Bronx” to the Middle Eastern-flavored “Gulf of Aqaba” to the pop-inspired “Nu Soul,” the musicians find a place of unity and swing throughout. Although the final piece, “Easy Now” is too short and too sweet, at least for this reviewer’s taste. Completion would have been better served with the longest piece of the set, “Maya’s Waltz,” with its extremely effective passage featuring guitar, drums, and organ. Overall the work is easy on the ears, the musicians work well together, and the recording provides a standout piece in “Cross Bronx.”

As with the other recordings, one could play this music for guest, and it would be entertaining but not intrusive. But like the other groups, too, there is a bit of repetitiousness about the music. The composers posit one line, and the rest is repetition with subtle variations.

 

kenfrancklingjazznotes.blogspot.com

Wayne Escoffery, Uptown (Posi-Tone)
London-born Wayne Escoffery (Mingus Dynasty, Tom Harrell, Monk Legacy Septet – and a Jackie McLean protege) is a rising mid-generation tenor player on the mainstream jazz scene. His playing is formidable, both in its sense of propulsion and melodic ideas. It also exudes an R&B feel at times. The session consists primarily of originals by the leader or bandmate Avi Rothbard plus Duke Pearson’s ballad “You Know I Care” and a version of Ellington’s “I Got It Bad” that opens in mellow fashion but builds into a burner. The other players in this fine quartet are Gary Versace on organ, Rothbard on guitar and Jason Brown on drums. My favorites: “No Desert,” I Got It Bad” and “Maya’s Waltz.”

by Joel Roberts

On Uptown, his fifth album as a leader, the impressive 34-year-old tenor saxophonist {Wayne Escoffery employs an old-fashioned soul jazz lineup of sax, Hammond B-3 organ, electric guitar and drums. But don’t expect to hear the sort of bluesy “uptown” jams associated with classic soul jazz tenors like Gene Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis or Stanley Turrentine. While he’s a hard-swinging tenor with a big, warm tone, Escoffery’s passion, expressiveness and long, flowing solos, as well as his thoughtful, forward-thinking compositions, place him more in the tradition of progressive post-bop tenors like Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson.

A former student of the late, great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, the London-born, Connecticut-raised Escoffery is perhaps best known for his key (and ongoing) role in trumpeter Tom Harrell’s highly regarded quintet. Since moving to New York nearly a decade ago, he’s also held down important sideman jobs with Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy project, Mingus Big Band,Eric Reed, Abdullah Ibrahim and others. Here, he’s joined by an energetic and cohesive group of contemporaries including his main foil, Israeli guitarist Avi Rothbard, omnipresent organist Gary Versace and the talented young drummer Jason Brown.

The set opens strongly with Rothbard’s hard-driving “No Desert,” followed by an unusually upbeat take on Duke Ellington’s “I Got It Bad” and another forceful tune from Rothbard, “Cross Bronx.” The most inspired track is Escoffery’s exploratory “Gulf of Aqaba,” with its chant-like refrain and Middle Eastern flourishes. Here, as on several other tunes, McLean’s inspiration is apparent in Escoffery’s slightly sharp harmonies and his ability to combine mainstream, bop-oriented playing with more outside influences. The album’s closing number, Escoffery’s “Easy Now,” is an easy, loping blues that’s the group’s most straight-ahead effort at capturing a vintage uptown vibe.

Track listing: No Desert; I Got It Bad; Cross Bronx; You Know I Care; Road from Eilat; Gulf of Aqaba; Nu Soul; Maya’s Waltz; Easy Now.

Personnel: Wayne Escoffery: tenor sax; Avi Rothbard: guitar; Gary Vesace: organ; Jason Brown: drums.

www.allaboutjazz.com

On Uptown, his fifth album as a leader, the impressive 34-year-old tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery employs an old-fashioned soul jazz lineup of sax, Hammond B-3 organ, electric guitar and drums. But don’t expect to hear the sort of bluesy “uptown” jams associated with classic soul jazz tenors like Gene Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis or Stanley Turrentine. While he’s a hard-swinging tenor with a big, warm tone, Escoffery’s passion, expressiveness and long, flowing solos, as well as his thoughtful, forward-thinking compositions, place him more in the tradition of progressive postbop tenors like Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson.

A former student of the late, great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, the London-born, Connecticut-raised Escoffery is perhaps best known for his key (and ongoing) role in trumpeter Tom Harrell’s highly regarded quintet. Since moving to New York nearly a decade ago, he’s also held down important sideman jobs with Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy project, Mingus Big Band, Eric Reed, Abdullah Ibrahim and others. Here, he’s joined by an energetic and cohesive group of contemporaries including his main foil, Israeli guitarist Avi Rothbard, omnipresent organist Gary Versace and the talented young drummer Jason Brown.

The set opens strongly with Rothbard’s hard- driving “No Desert”, followed by an unusually upbeat take on Ellington’s “I Got It Bad” and another forceful tune from Rothbard, “Cross Bronx”. The most inspired track is Escoffery’s exploratory “Gulf of Aqaba”, with its chant-like refrain and Middle Eastern flourishes. Here, as on several other tunes, McLean’s inspiration is apparent in Escoffery’s slightly sharp harmonies and his ability to combine mainstream, bop-oriented playing with more outside influences. The album’s closing number, Escoffery’s “Easy Now”, is an easy, loping blues that’s the group’s most straightahead effort at capturing a vintage uptown vibe.

 

curtjazz.wordpress.com

• Uptown – Wayne Escoffery – It’s a veritable rite of passage for mainstream tenor players to eventually have to deliver a date where they front a soulful organ trio.  Some have made it a mindless blowing session, others have approached it as a chance to try to breathe some new life into a clichéd genre.  Mr Escoffery’s Uptown is firmly in the latter category.  When Escoffery wraps his big tenor tone around the decidedly unorthodox grooves laid down by organist Gary Versace, you know that the results won’t be run-of- the-mill bar walking.  This album is never less than interesting and at times, thrilling.  I hope that Escoffery, Versace and company, hit that part of town again soon.

 

 

www.newsobserver.com

If you haven’t heard tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, his presence in trumpeter Tom Harrell’s quintet is reason enough to check him out. Among other credits, you might consider his membership in drummer Ben Riley’s (Thelonious) Monk Legacy Septet and the (Charles) Mingus Big Band plus his degrees from the Hartt School (he studied with Jackie McLean) and the New England Conservatory. Or you might just pick up “Uptown” (Posi-Tone) and dig his forthright delivery, confident sense of rhythm and masculine expression.

Although the album title and the backing instrumentation – guitar (Avi Rothbard), organ (Gary Versace) and drums (Jason Brown) – imply a soul-jazz orientation, the music covers other bases, too. It’s true that “Easy Now,” “Nu Soul” and a bluesy, bouncy version of Duke Ellington’s “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good)” provide down-home cooking. But “No Desert,” “Cross Bronx,” “Gulf of Arabia” and others extend the harmonic and rhythmic ingredients in a manner reminiscent of the late organist Larry Young’s “Unity,” a visionary Blue Note album from the ’60s.

Whatever groove this quartet is in, there’s a sense of mastery, with Escoffery leading the charge. The group shows strong blues roots, the ability to swing hard and a robust sense of joy.

 

 

Wayne Escoffery: Uptown (Posi-Tone Records)

thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com
He has become indelibly associated with the New York scene, but in fact tenor player Wayne Escoffery was born here in London, though he was still a child when his mother took him to the States. He is an in-demand side and session man, and is now a regular with the various Mingus bands that work out of the Jazz Standard in midtown New York.

Uptown has him leading a quartet with Avi Rothbard on guitar, Gary Versace on organ and Jason Brown on drums. While we’re used to hearing Escoffery on original material – and there is plenty here, both from his pen and that of Rothbard – but more of a novelty is hearing him get stuck into a standard like Ellington’s I Got It Bad. He has something of Sonny Rollins’ or Dexter Gordon’s directness of attack and confident, melodic improvising, while the band grooves hard behind him.

Escoffery has a particularly personal and indentifiable way of playing patterns on faster originals – reminiscent of a player like Chris Potter, though by no means an imitator. It means some of his soloing can feel a little predictable, expert though it is.

Rothbard has a fairly straight jazz guitar sound but is fleet of finger and fluent in ideas. Versace and Brown swing hard in support.