JOE MARTIN QUARTET with Marcus Gilmore, Brad Mehldau, and Mark Turner at the Jazz Standard, 10/8/09
OCT 8, 2009 --GRAMERCY: I can't begin this review any other way except talking about food. Jazz Standard, in my opinion, has the best food of any jazz club in New York, particularly the BBQ chicken wings with homemade blue cheese dip. Granted, its pricey - a good place to bring your parents when they come into town for a visit - but there are some tricks. The side dishes range from $4-7 and are actually pretty huge portions. This time out I tried the sweet potato fries after watching my compatriot enjoy them at a previous show (he didn't offer me any). The "fries" were more like full-length sweet potato chunks and the portion was more than I could finish by myself. They were served with a great maple sauce that was too sweet if anything.
Oh, and there was music too. Joe Martin led a quartet of big names - and judging by the applause-o-meter it seemed the majority of the audience was actually there to see Brad Mehldau. Mehldau was the consummate sideman though, staying far out of the spotlight most of the time. This was my first time seeing Mehldau play with a horn player and I was really impressed with his comping under Mark Turner's solos. He was equally as intellectual and intuitive as he is in his solos, but never overbearing. Turner and Melhdau had a unique chemistry, each nudging one another into the outer ranges of their comfort zones.
This was a two-night engagement, and attending the last set, second night, everything felt pretty well hooked up. It didn't sound quite like a band that lives together and throws a ball around in the dark as a trust building exercise, but it did sound like everyone was making an effort to be a musical group. Unfortunately, I heard more than one account from the previous night's performance that this was not always the case. Its worth noting though, that Chris Potter showed up and sat in a few tunes Wednesday, so the vibe may have been more of a loose jam session because of that.
When a bass player leads a group my eyes are always on the compositions they bring to the table. Four of the six tunes (almost an hour and a half set in total) were penned by Martin, and they had a good flow to them. The first tune "Once Before" was pretty straightforward and swinging. The second tune "Stoic" had a more modern feel to it, and was much more bass driven, which caused Mehldau to leave a little more space. The next piece was a beautiful version of Jaco Pastorius' "the Balloon Song", followed by a very camouflaged version of "Stablemates" that didn't really reveal itself until the third soloist. Both anchored the set nicely, which was book-ended by two more Martin compositions.
As a player Joe Martin's most stand-out feature was his improvising. His lines were clear, melodic and sounded like great solos, not just great bass solos. He played with rhythmic variety but not to the point of incessant polyrhythmic disarray.
If there was anything slightly disappointing about the group it might have been Marcus Gilmore. He sounded great, just not mind blowing. His groove was fat, but very direct and straightforward, leaving little flexibility. His sound seemed a bit more transparent than what I would have liked to hear). In the end- except for one stand out solo- Gilmore left little to be remembered about the set.
Next time I'll report back on the St. Louis Style Toasted Ravioli. I'm currently accepting donations to this end.
