In the wake of being voted Composer of the Year in the 2001 Down Beat Readers Poll, Tom Harrell is now finding the kind of acclaim for his compositional gifts that he has long known as an instrumentalist. His latest recording for RCA/Bluebird, Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard, captures the great moments from his November 2001 engagement at the Greenwich Village club in Harrell’s first recording there headlining, and his first with the quintet that is his working band. Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard will be in stores on Tuesday, May 7, 2002.
Harrell wrote seven of the eight selections on the new recording, including “When the Rain Begins,” co-written by his wife, Angela Harrell. The eighth song is the standard “Everything Happens to Me," originally recorded by Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and now given an exquisitely lyrical instrumental reading by Harrell.
His two most recent albums – 1999's Grammy-nominated Time's Mirror with big band and last year's warmly received Paradise with a chamber ensemble that included strings – were the most ambitious recorded projects of Harrell’s remarkable career. Though he usually switches between trumpet and flugelhorn, he sticks with the trumpet on Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard, which also serves as a showcase for his current band, one of the most cohesive and exciting jazz units performing today.
Besides its leader, the Tom Harrell Quintet consists of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Quincy Davis, musicians who maneuver Harrell's musically demanding material with a rare combination of technical virtuosity and emotional depth. Xavier Davis and Ugonna Okegwo have been working with Harrell for over three years. Quincy Davis, Xavier's younger brother, joined the band a year ago. The quintet will be touring this spring in support of the album.
“They're incredible players," Harrell says admiringly of his sidemen. “You can hear how they've created new voices for themselves, remaining in touch with the tradition while moving beyond it into new music."
Jimmy Greene, who in 1999 recorded a RCA Victor album of his own titled Brand New World, is one of the most formidable young saxophone stylists on the jazz scene. “Jimmy is phenomenal," Harrell states. “He has a really creative imagination and beautiful feeling. He's very consistent. His tone is big and warm and beautiful. It's a pleasure working with him."
In Xavier Davis, Harrell has found an ideal pianist to interpret his challenging music. “You can hear him constantly striving to do new things with harmony and rhythm and melody," Harrell says of Davis. The pianist in turn says that his boss “is not caught up in the hype of the music industry. He writes and plays music for music's sake."
Ugonna Okegwo, whose bass is given the solo spotlight on Harrell's peacefully haunting “Manhattan, 3 A.M.," “does some really creative things that I haven't heard anyone do with his articulation and timing," Harrell says. “He is very individual, both in his soloing and accompanying. I love the way he plays in the ensemble."
Drummer and longtime friend Billy Hart introduced Tom Harrell to Xavier Davis. Xavier then introduced Harrell to his brother, drummer Quincy Davis. Davis, Harrell says, “adds a lot of spark to the group. He makes it swing and gives us a groove all the time. It always feels good to play with him. He's a great soloist, too. Very creative. You can hear his roots in the jazz tradition."
The drummer finds playing with Harrell especially rewarding. “His compositions provide freedom and form, allowing the exploration of different possibilities while offering balance and direction," Davis explains. “By trusting our abilities and encouraging us to play an integral role within his music, Tom challenges us to open new doors and be responsive to one another."
The empathy between the five musicians on Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard is remarkable, the result of mutual respect and regular work as a unit. “We've been doing a lot of concerts, and each time the group feeling is really strong," the leader says. “The audience reaction has always been really positive. We've played in the United States and Europe and Asia, and it's been really fun each time."
Harrell, who worked with such jazz greats as Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Horace Silver, Sam Jones, Bill Evans and Phil Woods before striking out on his own in 1989, is no stranger to the Village Vanguard. Born in Urbana, Illinois, he grew up in the San Francisco Bay area listening to music recorded at the legendary New York City club, most notably John Coltrane's “Live" at the Village Vanguard. Harrell would himself come record at the Vanguard, first in 1982 as a member of a big band led by another of his musical heroes, composer George Russell. The trumpeter, a New York City resident since the mid-70s, brought his career full circle by taking his own band into the club to record, in November 2001, 40 years to the month after Coltrane made his classic album there.
“It was a great honor to record there," he says. “The people are really nice, and the audiences are really nice. The sound is great, of course. It has a special warmth."
That warmth, so brilliantly captured on Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard, is contagious.
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