www.allaboutjazz.com

With over 20 years experience as a recording artist and composer, saxophonist Ralph Bowen has a mastery of straight-ahead jazz that is immediately apparent on Power Play, his third album for the Posi-Tone label. Bowen’s first two Posi-Tone releases, 2009’s Dedicated and 2010’sDue Reverence were quintet recordings. For Power Play, he trims down to an all-new quartet lineup, but it still swings.

On the album’s opener, “K. D.’s Blues,” Bowen jumps straight in with a hard-edged tenor riff that soon develops into a powerful and melodic solo. Drummer Donald Edwards and bassist Kenny Davis, who was Bowen’s band mate for a few years in the ’80s group Out Of The Blue, also impress from the off, creating a driving rhythm that characterizes much of the recording.

Pianist Orrin Evans matches Bowen solo for solo across Power Play. On the snaky “Drumheller Valley,” Evans delivers the opening riff with confidence, while his beautifully varied solo has a soulful vibe which contrasts well with Bowen’s more bop-ish approach. He’s equally stylish when he joins Davis and Edwards to underpin Bowen’s lead playing. It’s Bowen’s warm and lyrical playing that’s to the fore on Guy Wood’s standard, “My One And Only Love” but the performance is a genuine quartet affair, with the rhythm players’ relaxed, and relaxing, approach central to the mood of the song.

While Bowen’s tenor saxophone might be the most prominent instrument on the album—it’s also the instrument of choice for both of the CD’s cover photos—he delivers some of his finest playing, with soprano, on his lovely ballads “Jessica” and “A Solar Romance.”

Power Play is an apposite title: for saxophonist Ralph Bowen is certainly one of the most powerful players in contemporary jazz. But power alone is seldom, if ever, enough, and Bowen combines power with exceptional control, feeling and tone. The rest of the quartet shares Bowen’s characteristics, ensuring that this collection of tunes is constantly rewarding.

www.allaboutjazz.com

The inscription on saxophonist Ralph Bowen’s business card probably should read “solid citizen,” because his post-bop jazz conception has always been steadfast and dependable. With Power Play, he only adds to his stalwart reputation.

Together with bassist Kenny Davis, Bowen was picked, in the mid-1980s, to spearhead the return of Blue Note Records in the all-star band Out Of The Blue. Along with the likes of Michael Philip Mossman, Kenny Garrett, andRalph Peterson, OTB revived the classic post-bop sound. Bowen continued that language with discs from Criss Cross and his previous releases, Due Reverence (2010) and Dedicated (2009), with this century’s keeper of the flame, Posi-Tone Records.

On this release Bowen tackles eight originals and one standard. With the choice not to share the frontline with another horn, he carries the session on some very broad shoulders. He opens with “K.D.’s Blues,” a spirited and animated groove vehicle that captures the essence of his experience playing with Horace Silver, or with bluesy organ bands in Philadelphia.

Spending the majority of the disc on tenor, he does switch to soprano for the balladic “Jessica” and “A Solar Romance.” Where his tenor challenges all comers, his soprano playing is much softer, and his sympathetic sound floats, with no hint of the twitchiness the straight horn is apt to have.

As the title notes, this disc is about the urge and compression of a connected quartet working through some muscular pieces. The band flexes its collective muscle on “The Good Shepherd,” and bends intricate patterns on “Two-Line Pass.” Bowen seems to want to pack this outing with pieces that warrant standing ovations. He certainly does with his tribute to the two Johns, covering “My One And Only Love” straight from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963) , by playing both Johns’ parts with the sincerest and most flattering imitation.

lucidculture.wordpress.com

Ralph Bowen’s Power Play: A Clinic in Melody

It looks like we have our first classic of the year. On the cover of his new album Power Play, saxophonist Ralph Bowen stands in an alley, holding his sax more like a goalie than a winger. But the title is absolutely spot-on. This is one of those albums that musicians will hear and will immediately want to play along to. Yet ironically, non-musicians will probably enjoy this the most because they can just relax and enjoy it for what it is rather than having to figure out what Bowen is doing. Which actually isn’t all that difficult, most of the time, other than the most rapidfire passages (which will take lots of practice if you want to do them with the same kind of soul and style), because melody is simple. It lingers. As does this album.

If you play, this is a clinic in the kind of things you could be doing, and maybe should be doing. Bowen’s sense of melody is stunning, and yet completely unpredictable. He alternates effortlessly between scales and modes, shows off some wickedly blistering speed in places yet only when he really has to drive a point home. The closest comparison is probably Joshua Redman, but Bowen’s attack is lighter and more crystalline, and that contrasts, sometimes mightily, with the intensity of the tunes. He plays both tenor and alto here and is equally compelling either way. It’s hard-hitting, purposeful and tuneful beyond belief, and it elevates the crew behind him. Donald Edwards’ no-nonsense drums team up withKenny Davis’ crisp, propulsive bass, along with Orrin Evans’ piano. About Evans, what else is there to say – everything he touches lately turns into magic (have you heard his Tarbaby album from last year? Get the damn thing!), and this is yet another example.

They don’t waste time getting started with an aggressive, matter-of-fact swing blues, which sets up an immediate contrast with the gorgeous, richly countermelodic Drumheller Valley, its intro with echoes of Brubeck, Evans kicking in a majestically chordal solo followed by an artfully divergent passage into Bowen’s lusciously ominous spirals. Two-Line Pass – a highway reference, maybe? – is relentless, Evans again matching the understated overdrive of Bowen’s restless bustle. Evans goes into rippling Americana-via-Brubeck on The Good Shepherd, a wickedly catchy modal number; Bowen’s long, bumpy descent out of the clouds on the warmly thoughtful swing tune Bella Firenze is arguably the high point of the whole album. Although on second thought that could be his big crescendo out, on alto, on the almost deviously nonchalant blues ballad Jessica, which follows it.

Walleye Jigging is a tongue-in-cheek lazy afternoon tableau complete with an expansive cocktail piano solo and an extended interlude in three before reverting to relaxed, syncopated swing. The album ends with A Solar Romance, a gently optimistic ballad that turns dark in seconds and gives Bowen the chance to work the suspense for all it’s worth, all the way to a very uneasy resolution. The lone cover here is My One and Only Love, where the bass and piano give Bowen plenty of room for what’s basically an expansive (ok, eight-minute) solo that somehow manages not to be boring. It’s only February, but you’ll see this on our best albums of 2011 list. It’s out now on Posi-Tone.

steptempest.blogspot.com

Power Play – Ralph Bowen (Posi-Tone Records) -Tenor saxophonist/composer came out of Canada in the mid-1980s to study in the United States and first came to critical notice as a member of the Blue Note labels hand-picked ensemble of “young lions” known as Out of the Blue. That group featured, among others, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Bob Hurst and drummer Ralph Peterson.  Bowen went on to work with pianists Michel Camilo, Hank Jones and Horace Silver as well as vocalist Shirley Scott and bassist Charles Fambrough.
This release, his 3rd for Posi-Tone, features the fine piano work of long-time friend Orrin Evans, bassist Kenny Davis and drummerDonald Edwards.  Evans’ tolling McCoy Tyner-like chords give great power to “Drumheller Valley” as does Edwards’ powerful drumming.  Bowen starts his solo (after a fine one from Evans) quietly but soon rides the roiling rhythm section to impressive heights.  “Two-Line Pass” has the speed of a hockey game in the flying bass lines of Davis – Bowen blazes a mighty trail through the piano chords, having fun interacting with the ensemble.  Evans takes his own joy ride with Edwards supplying the high-octane percussive push.
Bowen wisely plays “My One and Only Love” as the pretty ballad it is, staying close to the melody and chord changes for his handsome solo.  There is a sense of joy in his solo, a happiness that carries through the entire piece.
Other highlights include the handsome uptempo ballad “Bella Firenze” with an Evans solo that is relaxed and “swinging” at the same time and an energetic give-and-take featuring Bowen and Edwards (which ends on a fadeout.)  “Walleye Jigging” has a pleasing melody played over shifting tempos that opens to an understated piano solo before Bowen and Edwards have more strong interaction. Bowen’s lithe and gentle soprano saxophone is featured on the final track, “A Solar Romance.”  Take the time to listen to Davis’s long tones on the bass and Edward’s exemplary work on the cymbals as well as Evans’ impressionistic piano (somewhat reminiscent of another, older, Evans – Bill.)
“Power Play” does have its share of powerful playing but there is also a goodly amount of dynamic variation from track to track.  What does not change throughout the program is the fine musicianship and the excellent interplay.  Some might call Bowen’s approach “modern hard bop” – call “honest good music” that’s well played and you won’t go wrong.  For more information, go to www.ralphbowen.comor www.posi-tone.com.
Here’s the opening track, “K.D’s Blues” courtesy of Posi-Tone Records and IODA Promonet:
K.D.’s Blues (mp3)

www.allaboutjazz.com

Saxophonist Ralph Bowen has always been an original, despite being tagged as one of the neo-traditionalist young lions of the ’80s. A quarter century has gone by since Bowen came to semi-prominence as a member of Out Of The Blue, yet this mega-talent still manages to fly just under the radar, despite impressive dates like this one.

Power Play is a sharp departure from Bowen’s previous Posi-Tone albums, which were built on an all-star guitar-bass-drums rhythm section, and placed trumpeter Sean Jones next to Bowen on the frontline. For this, his third record for the label, Bowen is the lone horn player and he enlists pianist (and label mate) Orrin Evans to take the role of harbinger of harmony previously held by guitarist Adam Rogers.

The program is all Bowen-based material, save for a classy take on “My One And Only Love,” and the saxophonist often shares the spotlight with Evans. Both men insert some chromatic lines into their soloing on “K.D.’s Blues,” but they take two very different approaches beyond that point. Bowen becomes more rhythmically frantic and fearsome after his brief, descending chromatic caper, while Evans uses his turn to launch into bluesy statements. “Drumheller Valley” shifts the focus to Evans at first, but Bowen delivers some playfully dancing work, atop bassist and former Out Of The Blue band mate Kenny Davis‘ lines, that deserves mention. The saxophonist then reclaims his position in the drivers’ seat, delivering swooping melody lines (“The Good Shepherd”) and sweet seduction (“Solar Romance”) with equal skill and measure.

Davis and drummer Donald Edwards serve as support crew, rather than soloists, on the majority of the album, but both make invaluable contributions to the music. Edwards provides solid swing of all stripes and colors, from fast and driving to slow and loose, and he drives “Walleye Jigging” with his choppy, shifting cymbal work. The drummer briefly gets an opportunity to cut loose over a vamping pattern on this track, but he proves to be more impressive when trading twelve-bar solos on “Two-Line Pass.” Davis demonstrates a plucky presence when it counts, but his lines are rounded out for maximum support on the softer material. While he’s clearly the most introverted artist on the album, his strong solo skills steal the show on “Jessica.”

Power Play, with its mixture of driving, thought-provoking material and gentler journeys, demonstrates that power manifests itself in different ways, and remains ever-present within the work of saxophonist Ralph Bowen.