Featured Artist: Bootsie Barnes
CD Title: Boppin' Round The Center
Year: 2004
Record Label: Harvest Records
Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic
Musicians: Bootsie Barnes (tenor sax); John Swana (trumpet); Farid Barron (piano); Derrick Hodge (bass); Craig McIver (drums)
Review: Bootsie Barnes may be the most unknown tenor sax player beyond the city limits of Philadelphia to perform with some of that city’s best-known jazz names. In a sense, he represents the spirit of Philadelphia jazz, which is quite different from what you would hear in New York City, because of the, yes, brotherhood involved in it. That is, in Philadelphia, jazz is a community event where the major players know each other and play jazz as an unabashed way to get the listeners out of their seats to dance or clap or celebrate. The Philadelphia community of jazz was entirely evident during the memorial concert for another beloved Philadelphia legend who was relatively anonymous to the rest of the jazz world: Gerald Price, one of Joey DeFrancesco’s teachers and occasional accompanist for Sonny Stitt. There were Philadelphians Larry McKenna on saxophone, Darryl Hall on bass, Eddie Green on piano, Pieces of a Dream, Trudy Pitts on B-3 organ, Tyrone Brown on bass, Jim Miller on drums, Keter Betts from Washington D.C. and…Bootsie Barnes on tenor sax. And midway through the concert, the crowd was on its feet, applauding continuously and shouting encouragement and joy in a response that usually only a B-3 organ trio can install. Announcers mentioned that this is how Price wanted to be remembered.
This is the kind of feel that Barnes captures on Boppin’ Round The Center, which is the first project over which he had total control. So now, the liveliness and life infusing Barnes’ performances, and which his live audiences have enjoyed, are available on CD as Barnes applies his own style to nine tunes of his choice. Backed by John Swana on trumpet, Farid Barron on piano, Derrick Hodge on bass and Craig McIver on drums, Barnes makes plain his magnetic appeal which no doubt attracted them to this project, even as they have performed with the likes of Max Roach, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron and Jon Faddis. Moreover, Barnes draws them into his own irresistible style as well, a fact all the more evident by listening to Barron’s entirely different approach with The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra or Swana’s more understated work on his own CD’s.
The first track, “Boppin’ Round The Center,” is notable not only because it sets up the feel-good spirit of the entire recording, but also because it recalls Barnes’ childhood friendship with Bill Cosby who grew up in the same housing project and who danced “The Bop” with others at the recreation center of the Richard Allen Project. After that rousing number, one would think that things would calm down on “Young & Foolish,” the next track, but no so. For Barnes takes the song at a medium-fast clip with the inevitable swing that inspires audiences. Even Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Felicidad,” normally expected to be played with a light Brazilian-derived sway, is played faster with more swing as Barnes applies his richness of tone to the tune at hand. It becomes evident, if comparisons are necessary to interest prospective listeners in Barnes’ music, that his sound is appealingly aggressive like Dexter Gordon’s but without the staggered phrasing.
With that comparison made, it’s not hard to imagine Barnes’ interpretation of “All The Way” adapted to a hand-clapping type of swing or McCoy Tyner’s “You Taught My Heart To Sing,” played in a more extroverted fashion than singers usually adopt to perform the song.
Bootsie Barnes’ “Boppin’ Round The Center” is the type of CD featuring regional variations in jazz that we hear all too seldom due to their limited distribution. Barnes’ work, well known to Philadelphia residents and to the jazz musicians from elsewhere who perform in that city, deserves the wider recognition that the CD is hoped to receive.
Tracks: Cosby’s Capers (a.k.a. Boppin’ Round The Center), Young & Foolish, Minor Mishap, Soul Trane, Three Miles Out, All The Way, You Taught My Heart To Sing, Ray’s Idea, Felicidad
Reviewed by: Don Williamson
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