Jerry Bergonzi - Tenorist

Savant 2085

Historically speaking, hustling has frequently been an intrinsic aspect of a jazz existence: A jazzman can’t rest on his laurels if he wants to keep bread both on the table and in his pocket. Self-promotion and self-reliance are necessities. Saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi has run this familiar gauntlet over much of his 35-year career, piling on teaching gigs off-nights in a furniture store and touring relentlessly as both sideman and leader. About a decade ago, he hit a jackpot, securing a faculty post at the New England Conservatory. Since then, things have eased up and Bergonzi now enjoys a professional life most jazzmen only dream of, teaching and playing on a schedule that is largely of his own design. That fortuitous escape from the rat race run by many of his contemporaries has had a curious effect on his music, at least if this new Savant release is any reliable barometer.

Bergonzi approaches the most quotidian of jazz instruments, the tenor sax, in a manner akin to peers like Ari Ambrose and Rich Perry and, talking progenitors, Joe Henderson. Instead of aiming for radical reworkings of standards or crazy quilt originals, he devotes his attentions to subtle tonal variations, tracing ribbons of sound that waver and glide across registers. Guitarist John Abercrombie is an ideal foil in this regard, his own plectral assignations shimmering and sliding in through a serpentine slalom of bent notes. Bassist Dave Santoro, a regular in Bergonzi’s circle, and drummer Adam Nussbaum mix a similar blend of supportive muscle and relaxed delivery on pieces like the opening cerulean stroll “Gecko Plex.” Other originals outfitted with suitably amusing names like “Table Steaks” and “Czarology” expand further on the quartet’s sleek postbop personality and the pair of standards, Monk’s “Pannonica” and Kenny Dorham’s “La Mesha”, are artfully chosen and interpreted.

Even with these positives, my first full trip through the hour-long itinerary left me grappling with a feeling that Bergonzi’s comparatively cushy career positioning may have had a mollifying effect on his music; the old adage that success erodes a musician’s creative hunger and edge sticking in the mind’s craw. Subsequent spins revealed holes in this initial impression. While much of the program is undeniably polished and even urbane, Bergonzi and his colleagues refuse to completely abandon harmonic friction in the name of a seamlessly rendered tune. The saxophonist’s musings might be a shade too smooth for some, but his positioning in a well-earned catbird seat of his own creation hasn’t compromised his credentials as a tenorist with something to say.

~ Derek Taylor