Sherman Irby - Full Circle
Sherman Irby
Full Circle
1997 Blue Note
Produced by Andy Farber
Personnel:
Sherman Irby - Alto Saxophone
James Hurt - Piano
Eric Revis - Bass
Dana Murray, Charlie Persip - Drums
Sherman is a bit of a throwback to very traditional hard-bop, with an oddly wide, warm tone for an alto player. He also has two really excellent qualities balanced together: good chops and a sense of restraint. His playing is casual, unforced, and varied. He also knows how to pick some good sidemen; the tragically underrated James Hurt is the secret centerpiece of his backing unit, and his meticulous attention to nuance and shifting forms gives the material some swagger it would probably lack with someone else in the piano chair. Revis and Murray are a functional, well-matched pair for the beat department, and the guest spot of Charlie Persip on the Tadd Dameron standard Wee is perfect (seeing as Persip had played with Dameron way back in the day y'all, and he also played on some heavy dates with Dolphy, Dizzy, and Roland Kirk).
Most of the tracks are Irby originals, and of them all, Betty the Baptist and Mamma Faye stand out really well. They are set both as a blues with a heavy dose of southern church spirituals. A little bit of sorrow, and a little bit of hope, they play out very good on the ears, with Mamma Faye featuring a rather loose piano break that seems oddly Monkish were it not so busy. The rest of the Irby-penned tracks are certainly good, but do not stand out as future standards, and really fall into similar territory. Irby isn't innovative, but he is an excellent player within a stylistic gamut. He does not suffer from the ofttimes mechanical playing of guys like Wynton Marsalis and Joshua Redman.
There are two covers; the aforementioned Wee, which is played with a playfulness and shows that Sherm has chops to spare, able to play the fast-turn phrases and the note-cramming that it requires. The other is of Giant Steps, which is ambitious (everyone has to take a stab at Trane I suppose) and Irby certainly does not insult the spirit of it, but he seems to lack something. He does not seem to be also to let loose and flow, and his tone is not quite full enough on it. It is however, a hell of a showcase for Hurt, who dances, cajoles and coerces sheets of notes in spots, without sounding like he is trying to showboat, and comps with wit and charm in others. If anything, he seems to invoke a reverence of Trane more than anyone else on it, largely by being irreverent and daring.
A decent buy in the used bin, and if you like this, his follow up, Big Mama's Biscuits is not a shabby follow up (also on Blue Note).
Full Circle
1997 Blue Note
Produced by Andy Farber
Personnel:
Sherman Irby - Alto Saxophone
James Hurt - Piano
Eric Revis - Bass
Dana Murray, Charlie Persip - Drums
Sherman is a bit of a throwback to very traditional hard-bop, with an oddly wide, warm tone for an alto player. He also has two really excellent qualities balanced together: good chops and a sense of restraint. His playing is casual, unforced, and varied. He also knows how to pick some good sidemen; the tragically underrated James Hurt is the secret centerpiece of his backing unit, and his meticulous attention to nuance and shifting forms gives the material some swagger it would probably lack with someone else in the piano chair. Revis and Murray are a functional, well-matched pair for the beat department, and the guest spot of Charlie Persip on the Tadd Dameron standard Wee is perfect (seeing as Persip had played with Dameron way back in the day y'all, and he also played on some heavy dates with Dolphy, Dizzy, and Roland Kirk).
Most of the tracks are Irby originals, and of them all, Betty the Baptist and Mamma Faye stand out really well. They are set both as a blues with a heavy dose of southern church spirituals. A little bit of sorrow, and a little bit of hope, they play out very good on the ears, with Mamma Faye featuring a rather loose piano break that seems oddly Monkish were it not so busy. The rest of the Irby-penned tracks are certainly good, but do not stand out as future standards, and really fall into similar territory. Irby isn't innovative, but he is an excellent player within a stylistic gamut. He does not suffer from the ofttimes mechanical playing of guys like Wynton Marsalis and Joshua Redman.
There are two covers; the aforementioned Wee, which is played with a playfulness and shows that Sherm has chops to spare, able to play the fast-turn phrases and the note-cramming that it requires. The other is of Giant Steps, which is ambitious (everyone has to take a stab at Trane I suppose) and Irby certainly does not insult the spirit of it, but he seems to lack something. He does not seem to be also to let loose and flow, and his tone is not quite full enough on it. It is however, a hell of a showcase for Hurt, who dances, cajoles and coerces sheets of notes in spots, without sounding like he is trying to showboat, and comps with wit and charm in others. If anything, he seems to invoke a reverence of Trane more than anyone else on it, largely by being irreverent and daring.
A decent buy in the used bin, and if you like this, his follow up, Big Mama's Biscuits is not a shabby follow up (also on Blue Note).
posted by theloniusfunk at 12:54 PM
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