Randy Brecker - 70's Jazz Pioneers Live (2005)

1. Cantaloupe Island
2. Sugar
3. 500 Miles High
4. Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
5. Red Clay

Joanne Brackeen - Piano
Randy Brecker -  Trumpet
Al Foster - Drums
David Liebman - Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Pat Martino - Guitar
Buster Williams - Bass

A summit meeting of sorts, this set takes another look at top improvisers who came into their own in the 1970s. Together, the sextet sounds at a cooled-out creative peak. The group's rhythms are strengthened by guitarist Pat Martino, who's got an agility that can make his and ace pianist Joanne Brackeen's parts sound together like a Hammond B-3 organ and then go into a warpy solo that hits all the right chords and sounds delightfully melodic. Dave Liebman, known more for his soprano sax, picks up the tenor here and plays alongside trumpeter Randy Brecker as they tackle supremely identifiable work (Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island") and then refashion "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" into an even-clipped vehicle for tone-bending solos. Remarkable here is the great audio, capturing Al Foster's drumming with all the low and high accents. It might sound retro to dig a "'70s Jazz" ensemble, but note for note, this is a strong band playing fantastic tunes. ---Andrew Bartlett, amazon.com

The '70s have been unfairly maligned by some of the more conservative jazz critics, but in truth, the '70s were a very creative decade for jazz. From the fusion of Return to Forever and Weather Report to the funk-jazz of Grover Washington, Jr. and the Crusaders, and the modal explorations of McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson, the '70s were banner years for jazz. On March 20, 1998, trumpeter Mark Morganelli celebrated the richness of '70s jazz by organizing a special concert that was held at New York's Town Hall. Morganelli's idea was to feature improvisers who made an impact during the '70s, and those improvisers included trumpeter Randy Brecker, soprano and tenor saxman Dave Liebman, guitarist Pat Martino, pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Al Foster. That concert resulted in this excellent post-bop CD, which finds the '70s jazz pioneers offering acoustic-oriented versions of '70s classics like Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay," Stanley Turrentine's "Sugar," and Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" (all of which used a lot of electric instruments originally). Not all the songs were written during the '70sm while Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" is a '60s classic. So one could argue that this performance is a celebration of the '60s as well as the '70s. At any rate, Morganelli deserves applause for assembling a group of fine musicians and overseeing an evening of inspired jazz. --- Alex Henderson, Rovi

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