cover pic For Adults Only
Joris Teepe
 
 
Postcards Records 77 1021
recorded live at Smalls
New York -- Nov 27-28, 1998
 
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Joris Teepe: acoustic bass
Chris Potter: soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones
Don Braden: soprano and tenor saxophones
David Hazeltine: piano
Bruce Cox: drums
    Joris Teepe
  1. Chelsea Bridge
  2. Introduction
  3. Five Bears
  4. Second Avenue Story
  5. I Do It for Your Love
  6. Introduction
  7. Blues for Claudia
  8. Brother Braden
  9. For Adults Only
  10. You Don’t Know What Love Is
  11. Up Jumped Spring
Homegrown Review
Expect the unexpected with this disc, folks. Joris Teepe and his crew seem to delight in confounding listeners’ expectations, and from the sounds of things the audience at Smalls is delighted by the surprise as well.
 
The opener, Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge, is usually heard as a lush, languid, dreamy sort of piece. Teepe’s arrangement turns it into a perky, bouncy swinger and it works really well as such. Chris is the main soloist and gets the album off to a flying start.
 
Five Bears is a charming pastoral number, and again Teepe’s arrangement for dual reeds is outstanding [his work as composer and arranger throughout is truly a pleasure]. But this is followed by the epic sweep of his Second Avenue Story... which begins with a cruising pulse that sets you up for a smooth sleek groove like On Broadway à la Benson, but quickly becomes a sax free-form scramble, with Chris and Don Braden tumbling over each other like kids let out from the last day of school. BTW, Braden was a revelation for me here and throughout the disc; distinguished mainly by a slightly creamier tone and his placement in the stereo mix, he holds his own with Chris very handily. These guys make a dynamite reed tag-team! The sax duologue is followed by a David Hazeltine solo which shows a mastery of textural variety, and then it all somehow slides back into that Broadway groove. Bruce Cox is an impressive driving force all through this song, providing a surging foundation for all the pyrotechnics. And Teepe propels with a sinewy melodicism, somewhere between Mingus and Haden perhaps. Obviously, I think Second Avenue Story is a high point of this set.
 
But there are still more surprises to follow. Teepe’s fresh-baked original Blues for Claudia is arranged as a trio number -- but not for yer standard bass, piano and drums: it’s bass and two saxes! Pleasantly loose and open, there are times here where the interplay of Chris on soprano and Teepe reminds me of Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors in the 60s drummer-less Art Ensemble of Chicago [high praise, BTW!] The title track features a punchy, staccato arrangement that somehow ends up sounding bigger than a quintet; saxes and piano have envelope-pushing solos, and the tune climaxes with a high-energy sax chase that is truly exhilarating.
 
This disc has no low points. The originals are satisfying and memorable, the covers are given new life by the arrangements, and the level of performance from all five is uniformly excellent. While there are some fairly straightahead moments [e.g., Brother Braden], some of this may be a bit too edgy for those whose only exposure to jazz is, say, Diana Krall. But if your jazz palate is reasonably Adult, you’ll find this one well worth repeated listens.