I remember Clifford Brown – his Memorial Album was well spun vinyl in my collection. I loved his burnished tone and effortlessly melodic flights into bebop/hardbop stratospheres. Joyspring isn’t so much a tribute to him than a celebration of a musical spirit by one of my favourite pianists of late, Bill Carrothers (see my Zeitgeist post). With so much clarity of purpose, some obscure bebop tunes and fleet-footed masters Drew Gress, bass, and Bill Stewart, drums, on board, the trio puts a new spin on old favourites like Joyspring – transformed into an almost impenetrable reworking of the jaunty tune into a harmonically driven ballad – and I Remember Clifford into a soulful dirge of such protean genius it puts Bill Carrothers up with the other great expressionists like Jamal, Bley etc. Duke Jordan’s Jordu is transformed into something that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the Cotton Club or the Five Spot simultaneously! The super fast in your face beboppers provide welcome contrast to the more oblique reinterpretations and there are plenty of them here to sate your appetite for swing; Gerkin for Perkin, Junior’s Arrival, Powell's Prances and Jacqui, all of which seem to skip on taut trampolines as the trio negotiate the changes in true vintage style but with a lightness and buoyancy that places all three squarely in the 2010s.
It takes someone with Carrothers’ wit, intellect and creativity to make a piano trio offering of songs made famous by a trumpeter (and it has to be said with some Bud Powell thrown in) sound this well conceived and this seems to be one of his trademarks – he always keeps you guessing and never makes a predictable conceptual turn, but when the music starts up you ‘get it’ after the first note and are taken by the hand instead of left hanging, wondering why? – to do this well you are a true great indeed. Go get ‘em Bill – you’re in a real purple patch and I’m waiting for your next offering with bated breath.
