Felipe Salles

JD Allen
Americana Vol. 2
Savant Records SCD 2022

Aspects of African-Ame4rican life in the 20th Century, some less wholesome than others, are reflected in these quartet sessions giving both an extra-musical resonance. On one hand Americana Vol. 2 is a Blues-infused series of compositions by Detroit-born New York-based tenor saxophonist JD Allen, known for his work with Betty Carter, reflecting aspects of the Black diaspora, the Great Migration and daily injustices. Sympathetic backing come from long-timer associates, drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Gregg August with guitarist Charlie Hunter joining on most tracks.

More complicated, Tiyo’s Song of Life features Brazilian-American tenor saxophonist Felipe Salles, who teaches at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his band of pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Jonathan Butler interpreting nine never-heard-before compositions by fellow tenor saxophonist Tiyo Attallah Salah-El, who died at 76 in 2018. The reason for the tunes’ obscurity is that after distinguished service in the Korean War and gigs as a part-time musicians, Salah-El’s other activities led to his incarceration for nearly 50 years in a Pennsylvania prison with a life sentence and no possibility of parole. Besides his writings and political activism, prison abolitionists encouraged the saxophonist to compose music and its these prison tunes that the quartet plays.

Emphasizing the rhythmic thrust of much Diasporic music, expositions expressed by a shuffle beat, low-pitched saxophone honks and cries and Blues inflections are prominent from the beginning of the Allen odyssey. On tracks like “This World Is a Mean World”, the saxophonist snarls in emotional slurps in the best Stanley Turrentine/Fathead Newsman tradition as Hunter whines out bottleneck guitar references. Bringing in gospel, work song and R&B inflections, the four establish a foot-tapping groove deepened with thumping power plucks from the bassist, knife-style guitar interludes and intermittent drum backbeats, Able to express intensity even when the tempo is largo or even slower, story-telling is effectively expressed by the group on a tune such as “Jackie and Johnny”, with broken-octave progressions. Conversely “The Battle of Blair Mountain” brings the same harmonies into play, but expressed through country Blues-like picking from Hunter and harmonized double bass stops and reed slurs. This is expressed despite the tempo being livelier and march-like. Eventually the concluding “I’m Reaching Out” simultaneously confirms the quartet’s roots and modernity. Drum shakes and rolling guitar string projections give way to a stop-time theme driven by Allen’s command of subterranean pitches in the Coleman Hawkins-Sonny Rollins mode.

If references to earlier saxophone masters informs Allen’s playing, then it’s John Coltrane who seems to have been a major influence on Salah-El’s and by extension Salles’ musical conception. There are time in fact when the combination of theme and interpretation is a mirror image of Coltrane’s classic early 1960s quartet. One can hardly fault Salah-El for taking Trane as a major influence. However while pianist Curtis is judicious in his modal McCoy Tyner-like emulations and Sharpe’s bass work goes beyond Jimmy Garrison’s, the saxophone lines more often than not emulate Trane. But while Coltrane was constantly searching for new sounds, interpreter Salles’ output very rarely colors outside the songbook’s outlines.

Not that the saxophonist doesn’t put more contemporary shades on the basic form, as with his constant honking refrain on the Latinesque/“Maiden Voyage”-like “Steppin’ Up”. But the lightness of the piece with drummer Jonathan Butler’s level resonations are mostly in Salah-El’s pre-Free Jazz timeframe. Accepting that paradigm there’s plenty to like in the nine selections. Curtis’ repeated vamp at the end of “12 in 5” adds more strength to the sprightly tune that otherwise glides on keyboard clips and double bass undulations. Meanwhile “Blues for Pablo-Blues for Professor Zinn” named for other politically activists, contrasts shrieking reed variations with shaking pianisms, unrolling atop a thick double bass groove and ends with round robin trading fours from all concerned. The extended “Steppin’ Up” moves from a Trane-influenced ballad, including Salles’ low-pitched vibrations and subtle comping from the pianist, to open up into the saxophonist’s freest improvising as he adds hearty sniffs and snuffles to his curving vibrations until the piece concludes with piano glissandi and cymbal shakes.

One can trace the frustrations that marked Salah-El’s prison life with titles such as “Blues to Change Your Views – on Stage in a Cage” and “I’m Reaching Out”. However the CD and the skillful interpretations serve as a fitting memorial to the thwarted abilities of a hitherto unknown musician. There’s very little chance of any of these tunes entering anyone’s Real Book: they’re too much of their time. However the project is a reminder of how much the US’s institutional racism has contributed in part to the disruption of what could have been more fruitful careers.

More original, Americana Vol. 2 offers a more hopeful, propitious and polychromatic view of other parts of the post-Bellum Black experience and is well worth exploring.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Americana: 1. Up South 2. This World Is a Mean World 3. The Work Song 4. Hammer and Hoe 5. You Don’t Know Me 6. Jackie and Johnny 7. Mickey and Mallory 8. A Mouthful of Forevers 9. The Battle of Blair Mountain 10. Irene (Mother) 11. Down South

Personnel: Americana: JD Allen (tenor saxophone); Charlie Hunter (guitar [except tracks 6, 7 8]); Gregg August (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums)

Track Listing: Tiyo: 1. Toe Tappin’ Tastey 2. Blues to Change Your Views-on Stage in a Cage 3. Steppin’ Up 4. Live a Life of Love 5. My Love Is Deep Inside 6. 12 in 5 7. Life Long Friends 8. Blues for Pablo-Blues for Professor Zinn 9. I’m Reaching Out

Personnel: Tiyo: Felipe Salles (tenor saxophone); Zaccai Curtis (piano); Avery Sharpe (bass) and Jonathan Butler (drums)