March 3, 2006 - This
David Berkman fellow – you’d better be on the lookout for him.
However, he might be too tasteful and unassuming for his own good – like piano
aces Cedar Walton and Larry Willis, he’s got tremendous technique but he uses it
to serve the music, not his ego, and like them, his style is so unfailingly
lyrical, imaginative yet unhurried, subtle, tasty and tasteful, it’d be easy to
take him for granted in a world with so many other, more effusive, “dynamic”
piano masters.
At Chicago’s
groovy Green Mill, the Berkman 4 held sway over a nearly
full house on a darn chilly Friday night with a program of nearly all originals.
He brought a boss band with him, too: Jimmy Greene on tenor & soprano saxes,
Tom Martin on bass, and the fab Matt Wilson on drums. Stylistically, the DB4 was
(mostly) verse-chorus-verse post-bop, with hearty but focused, imaginative
solos. Greene’s style on tenor was like unto an amalgam of Charlie Rouse (the
Monk of the sax) and Gene Ammons (earthy, warm, lots of swell middle-range
playing) and his soprano was elegantly expressive in a most gentlemanly manner,
at times with an oboe-like sonority. Greene swung mightily, yet knew when to
pull back and rest. Martin was solid, sturdy, jaunty, lean ‘n’ mean as the
occasion demanded. Wilson, as I’ve stated in these cyber-pages before, is one of
the finest jazz drummers the American scene has produced. He’s all over his
array of drums like Blakey (but he sounds not like Blakey, btw); his sticks,
palms, and fingers coax all matter of extended technique-type sounds like the
Art Ensemble of Chicago’s F. Don Moye or AMM’s Eddie Prevost, but he’s always
propulsive, never delving into sound-for-sound’s sake (not that there’s anything
wrong with that). While a through-and-though jazz drummer, he also played with
the volatile whomp of the best rock drummers, throwing himself into the tubs a
la the Who’s late Keith Moon (whose drum technique had been given props by none
other than the late Elvin Jones).
Berkman?
With swells like Greene and Wilson on stage, it was almost easy to over look the
nice foundation he laid down for them to strut their stuff. Berkman seemed to
hug the middle range of the keys, making the quick bop jabs to propel things
along his way. Without “sounding like” Dave Brubeck, Berkman’s affable,
sharp-witted lyricism was quite Brubeck-like. Other frames of ref would include
the aforementioned Mr. Willis and Mr. Walton. In fact – and I hope Mr. B doesn’t
take (too much) offense at this – but I enjoyed Berkman’s playing and originals
much more in this in-person context than on some of his CDs, which are very good
but can be a tad too languid for this finicky writer’s warped taste.
Bottom Line:
the DB4 spun out some superlative jazz. It was “weekend night music,”
good-humored, crowd-pleasing, heartfelt, and engaging while also crammed with
enough ingenuity, chops, and surprises to gratify even the toughest of the
know-it-all Jazz Intellectual Posse. SEE the DB4 if/when they come to
your town…or go to their’s, it’s that simple.
JazzReview.com
