On his new Blues & Ballads & More album, Gerry Beaudoin Trio serve up a platter of jazz treats, music influenced by swing jazz and bop, a combo of styles that has influenced Beaudoin through out his career. Aside from two Duke Ellington standards, this album is made up of original compositions from Beaudoin and his son Gerry Beaudoin III. Listener can hear this trio swing, and they can hear them bop.
“Blue Once Again (Latin Version)” opens this jazz guitar driven album with supple melodic picking from Beaudoin. Every sweet accented note, though brief, is plump with tone and feeling. Whether playing them a bit faster of slowing down by resting longer between notes, Beaudoin creates an easy vibe, something that can inspire the listener’s imagination with its breezy sweep.
“In A Sentimental Mood,” originally composed by Duke Ellington, finds Beaudoin pressing out subdued notes, a melodic line in which he creates pleasant intervals one tasteful note at a time. Contrasting with thicker bass lines while tap dancing with fancy stick work from drummer Gary Johnson, the Beaudoin trio serve up an appealing plate of colors and tones. This one soothes while illustrating what can be accomplished with Beaudoin’s guitar going up against the more knobby bass notes.
Convoluted Blues, hip paced, feels like it’s skipping along, a bounce in its step. Beaudoin pays out a dandy of a guitar line. Melody and groove make one think of beatnik nightclubs in which people come out to hear jazz with their beverages. Light as a feather stick work maintains a tight rhythm with a plumb of a Bob Nieske bass line. One can picture the thick strings bending to the side as this low end line works its way in between the fanciful sticks and coolly played guitar.
Moving into sensitive territory, “Tenderly,” another originally composed by Duke Ellington, conjures romance, affection, each guitar note lovingly played, suggests someone special inspired this piece. There is a way in which Beaudoin caresses the sonic landscape with delicately picked and subtly fingered notes that whispers “this is love.”
“Blues In The Corner Pocket” brings us, again, into a darkened nightclub. Only this time around there is more strut. Delicate stick work moves quickly, flirting with a thick, flexible bass line, and issuing enough fills to hold up a tricky guitar part, a six string line that finds Beaudoin speeding up, briefly stopping before continuing his rhythmic line. The melody manages to sound cool while impressing with the finger dexterity to make it happen.
“That Long Forgotten Look” possesses a strong character. Beaudoin’s heavily accented notes, shadowed by bulbous bass notes, feels like a firm poke from someone who seeks to get our attention. As Beaudoin enters a speedier interval of notes, the bass remains subdued, not quite dancing around as much as the guitar. This sets up a contrast in each instrument’s texture while they also manage to support one another. It’s a careful juxtaposition of sounds that works well.
“I Thought About You,” played here with more of a traditional jazz feeling, finds Beaudoin’s guitar work swinging. He plays a lot of smooth chords over an elusive groove. The bass jackknifes its line by thickening and unthickening suddenly. Its wedge of low end contrasts well with the thinner, sharper guitar lines. That maintains a busyness that keeps things lively. Nothing here is simple but rather each instrument rotates on its own axis while simultaneously dovetailing.
A somber tone would have to trace through “Here’s That Rainy Day.” While exploring the sadder emotions on his guitar, Beaudoin conjures something that makes those feelings valuable to us as human beings. A tender melody comprised of considerately chosen and sensitively played notes make this one a piece that can make us feel better on a sad day because it reminds us that it’s a universal feeling, reconnecting us to our humanity with style. Bravo.
A lively tribute to the Berklee College of Music professor who delighted many with his clarinet, flute, and saxophones, “I Remember Dick Johnson” is a sweet dandy celebration. Guitar and bass both play bright and high, a respectful salute to the man’s dapper clarinet. Beaudoin hits an old fashioned sound, an ode to the pre-Bop era with bright, springy notes in tight succession. This piece ties together the clarinet player-arranger with his golden age in jazz.
Beaudoin closes out this album with “Blue Once Again (Swing Version),” a tribute to one his favorite eras in jazz. It’s got that certain motion associated with the most popular American music from the mid 1930s to the mid 1940s. The guitarist plays a swift succession of notes over the drummer’s off beat, making the piece swing around the soft beat. One feels the history of the time as well as all that was influenced by it in the following years.
Gerry Beaudoin Trio have come up with a respectable jazz album in Blues & ballads & More. It offers close to an hour of solid jazz guitar in a tight trio format. What Beaudoin creates here is a three dimensional album, an album in which three players expand on what their instruments can do to create a vivid document of their talents, compositions and arrangements.
Francesca Records – CD Purchase: The Gerry Beaudoin Trio Blues & Ballads & More
