Faddis

In the mid-'70s, Oscar Peterson recorded duet albums with veteran trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry, and Harry "Sweets" Edison. He paid the young Jon Faddis a huge compliment by also recording a set with him. Faddis, very much under Gillespie's influence but already displaying a wide range, clearly enjoyed the challenge, and on a set of standards and basic material, he often tears into the songs with reckless abandon. The Peterson-Faddis encounter is generally quite exciting and a high point in the early career of Jon Faddis.

Billy Harper & Jon Faddis - Jon & Billy (1974) {Candid–PJL Japan MTCJ-2505 rel 2000}
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© 1974, 2000 Candid / P.J.L. Japan | MTCJ-2505
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone / Trumpet

Jon Faddis and Billy Harper made an interesting, if at times mismatched, team on this 1974 date recently reissued by Evidence. Faddis was then laboring to find his own voice on trumpet; his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie, remained both his predominant influence and stylistic guiding light. Harper had won critical attention and praise for his work with Lee Morgan, and his robust tenor sax was well-displayed throughout this date.

This CD finds trumpeter Jon Faddis shooting in all directions with uneven but sometimes colorful results. Faddis performs an orchestra piece ("High Fire") that has his high notes contrasting with the five lower brass. He wa-waas behind Vivian Cherry's blues singing on "Reckless Blues," performs a rather silly "Ahbeedunseedja," plays a faceless ballad ("Forevermore"), raps about Dizzy Gillespie on "Rapartee" and then the two muted trumpeters jam on a brief "Cherokee." "Dewey's Dance" is a dull and overlong tribute of sort to Miles Davis, "Squeezin'" is a relaxed original, "March That Thang" sounds like a funky marching band, "Dizzy Atmosphere" is fast but brief bop and "I Surrender All" closes the CD with a gospellish duet also including pianist James Williams.

Hearing tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander is one of the great treats in jazz. There are few artists on stage today who combine chops, imagination and technique with a fluidity of ideas as he does. This imposing improviser is reunited here with pianist David Hazeltine and they're joined by another jazz great, the always daring trumpeter Jon Faddis on a couple of the tracks. Add in the swing engendered by bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth and you have a formula for excellence, if ever there was one. Alexander produced the session and there is a strong latin feel throughout thanks to the contributions of vibrant percussionist Alex Diaz spurring the band on with a whole trunk load of Latin percussion instruments. In addition to the Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66 title tune, the set-list features a satisfying mix of originals and covers all given the patented Alexander treatment.

An entry within Metro Doubles series, One, Two, Three & BJ4: The Legendary Albums is a two-CD set containing Bob James' first four albums, presented in chronological order. The set is a good way to pick up these four James' discs – not only is it a convenient, concise way to get the records, but they're presented well with good liner notes, including track-by-track commentary by Chris Ingham.

Dizzy Gillespie - To Diz, With Love: Live At The Blue Note (1992) {Telarc CD-83307}
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© 1992 Telarc | CD-83307
Jazz / Bop / Trumpet

Dizzy Gillespie's final recording, taken from a month he spent featured at the Blue Note in New York, matches the aging giant with such fellow trumpeters as Jon Faddis, Wynton Marsalis, Claudio Roditi, Wallace Roney, Red Rodney, Charlie Sepulveda and the ancient – but still brilliant – Doc Cheatham (who cuts both Diz and Faddis on "Mood Indigo"). Although Gillespie was no longer up to the competition, the love that these fellow trumpeters had for him (and some fine solos) makes this historic CD worth getting.

Lalo Schifrin - Gillespiana (1998) {Aleph Records ‎002}
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© 1998 Aleph Enterprises Inc. | Aleph 002
Jazz / 20th-century Classical Music / Modern Big Band / Modern Arrangement

For the first jazz release on his self-run Aleph label, Schifrin flew to Cologne, Germany to record this solid remake of Gillespiana, his 1960 five-movement concerto for Dizzy Gillespie with which Schifrin had been touring earlier in 1996. Designed to illustrate the sources that inspired Gillespie's music, the work remains one of the chameleonic Schifrin's best in a big-band idiom, particularly the dynamic Afro-Cuban-flavored blues "Toccata" that closes the concerto.