Menza/ Bacon/ Jones - Jack Rabbitt

Cadence Jazz 1184

It would be easy and somewhat opportunistic to open this review with a harbinging eulogy for the B-3. How far the vintage console organ, the pride of the mighty Hammond family, has slid in popularity since its heyday as the principal voice of the halcyon soul jazz 60s. A handful of high profile purveyors still pull the stops and press the pedals, but with Jimmy Smith now gone the instrument will likely never reclaim its past glories. Even so, it’s still far from a dust-draped relic. Dapper, declamatory reedman James Carter is currently touring with his own organ trio and Joey DeFrancesco, arguably Smith’s heir apparent, shows little sign of slumping on his own road shows, but my money has recently shifted to Menza and crew as among the most favorable flag bearers of the admittedly winnowed constituency.

Don Menza was only a name to me prior to auditioning this Cadence Jazz platter, a guy on the Buffalo, NY music scene who, like Ernie Krivda and Buck Hill in their respective locales, had opted for careers in close spiritual proximity to home. His swing-to-bop tenor evinces an abiding and refreshing Dexter Gordon influence, especially on the opening title cut where he strolls through a series of virile bop phrases with a steady stride and step. “Body and Soul” is a bold choice considering the standard’s as the most overworked tenor tune in the jazz fake book, soil sucked so dry of nutrients that in the wrong hands it often resembles the consistency of sand. Menza plants his flag confidently in the shaky alluvium and miraculously the pole stands fast, holding aloft his signature take and sustaining interest for an improvisationally rich 11+ minutes. His opening unaccompanied preamble, pregnant with a lush Websterian purr, references other requisite names like Hawkins and Byas.

Bobby Jones handles the B-3 duties. His method of shaping a line with diligent attention to cerulean shading reminds me strongly of John Patton. There are points where his interplay with Menza recalls the animated agreement shared by the elder Patton and his faithful horn colleague Fred Jackson on their Blue Note forays, but the vibe leans more heavily toward postbop than blues or funk. A telltale liner photo points to his primary instrument as piano, but his skills on amplified variant are more than passable. Finally there’s John Bacon on drums, a marvel with brushes who also serves double-duty as band historian by recounting their back-story in the liners. His light touch and preference for supple cymbal accents propels the trio along without straining the pistons and both Menza and Jones benefit from his deft ability at sustaining the forward velocity.

The rest of the program is populated by a near even mix of standards and originals, the latter batch all composed by Bacon. “The Right Spice” and “La Conga Loca” revisit the age-old soul jazz habit of unearthing Latin ore for sure-fire grooves. Bacon handles the boogaloo-tinged syncopations beautifully and Menza digs in with a succession of lustrous trills that once again tap the Newk vein.“Soldier in the Rain” and “My Foolish Heart” each eclipse the ten-minute marker and deliver eloquent ballad affidavits from the band. Those listeners resolved to Prestige and Rare Grooves reissues as a means of meeting their B-3 cravings will find much to masticate on here. The Cadence Jazz credo “the home of magic music” rings resoundingly true once again.

~ Derek Taylor