The Musical Box

To insinuate saxophonists Maceo Parker and Ken Vandermark are distantly related musical cousins would be a gross simplification of their music’s vast stylistic breadth.

Parker, as the title of his new Roots & Grooves album reminds us, is an R&B oriented player who sees few stepping stones between funk and jazz. No doubt serving as one of the principal horn men behind James Brown helped in linking the two schools.

Vandermark, who doubles as clarinetist on his new Beat Reader, seems to favor the call of European improvisers who took tradition into their own hands around the same time Brown’s music hit big in this country. But Vandermark shadows tradition from numerous sources. As Beat Reader makes clear in its liner notes, the music draws inspiration from visual artists (especially photographers) as well as musical innovators.

Roots & Grooves is a solid two-chapter R&B overview that teams Parker with Germany’s WDR Big Band. Its first disc is a soul salute to Ray Charles while the second expands the earthier combo funk the saxophonoist should slap a copyright on. No one else plays this kind of groove with his sense of ease and command.

In an age where Charles tributes, well intentioned as they may be, have become dime-a-dozen enterprises, the WDR band proves an inventive lot. But then, this is the same outfit that gave the late Joe Zawinul, along with a good chunk of his sublime Weather Report catalogue, a convincing big band makeover on last year’s Brown Street. On the Charles tunes, especially the swimming sass that propels Busted, the mood is as inviting, warm and assured as Parker’s vibrant alto sax leads.

The funk disc boils over. To Be or Not To Be boasts tight brassy drama that recalls early ‘70s Tower of Power records while 17 minutes of Pass the Peas, complete with EWI (electronic wind instrument) breaks, guitar blasts and drum solos, is delirious overkill.

What remains so stirring about the current Vandermark 5 lineup is its resourcefulness. Though this isn’t the quintet’s first album since cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm joined, it is definitely the first to fully unlock the temperament his playing triggers within the band. Holm provides a scorched chamber accent at times and a path to giddy rhythmic fracture at others. And those are just two of the cool sounds abounding on Beat Reader.

Similarly, the compositions are as playfully learned as the musicianship. Immediately arresting is Any Given Number, which employs an introductory minimalist theme on reeds that initiates a beautiful blues excursion. Later, Speedway (a tune dedicated to Max Roach, but cut well before the drummer’s death last summer) offers a bouncy rumble that swings with a thoroughly instinctual blend of melody and menace.

Those lucky enough to locate initial pressings of Beat Reader with a bonus disc of The New York Suite (those editions are already out-of-print) are afforded an even deeper glimpse of the Vandermark 5’s remarkable group dynamic. Melody sits side by side with freeform improvisational passages that shift from the gloriously quiet to the wondrously severe. In the end, though, Vandermark’s link with Parker becomes apparent: both are artists following their own divine soul muse.