SFJazz Collective
SFJazz Collective | The Music of Miles Davis and Original Compositions
Annenberg Center, Philadelphia PA
April 2
The SF Jazz Collective is on a six-week US tour and they into blazed into Philly for a one night only concert playing to an all but full house at the Annenberg Center. Many from Philly’s musical community were there along with a lustily appreciative diverse audience to hear this truly all-star band – saxophonists Miguel Zenon (alto) and David Sanchez (tenor), trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bassist Matt Penman, drummer Obed Calvaire , pianist Ed Simon, vibraphonist Warren Wolf- all stellar musician-composers in their own right. The concert indeed was one of musical occasion and a great way to kick off April as Jazz appreciation month.
The current roster of musicians hail from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, New Zealand and Baltimore, Miami and Philadlephia, but they convene in San Francisco once a year to create new music, tour and record and pay tribute to a musical giant. This year they explored the inestimable musical legacy of Miles Davis.
The SFJazz players are all virtuosos and composers. Each composed new arrangements from Davis catalogue and each player also premieres an original composition.
They bring the sensibility of Davis’ progressive aesthetic that drove innovations in every era of jazz. From the start they did not try to ‘sound’ like Davis, though they are in his musical rooms, completely invested and inspired by Davis’ inestimable artistry as a musician, composer and jazz innovator.
On the opening notes of “All Blues” (arrg. Edward Simon) they essay an extended variation built from Davis’ loping orchestral pulse that conjures the birth of the cool so indelibly. It becomes more evocative with Wolf’s vibes architecture, then developed through the horns and sublime counterpoints by Simon, Wolf, Penman and Calvaire. The collective’s cohesive sound established right out of the gate, midway through Sean Jones’ trumpet enters, wisely not trying to imitate Davis’ sound. -
Among the many other highlights-
Miguel Zenon’s composition “Tribe” that begins with a vocalese chant by the musicians that strike as an invocation then Wolf’s vibes become the driving force and the horns turning the heat way up. Later, the original compositions had a collective thread the composers didn’t make their own instrument the dominant sound. Trumpeter Robin Eubanks’ "Shields Green" featured the horns and a scorching solo by Sean Jones.
On his tribute Bobbie Hutchinson “Hug Hutchinson” an original member of SFJazz Collective is a bluesy ballade that glides into individual statements in homage to Hutchinson that gives way to a thrilling horn orchestral with Zenon, Sanchez, Jones and Eubanks each taking a solo down the line. Davis’s “Teo” arranged by David Sanchez and as Sean Jones noted afterward “my mother would say, he’s making love to that horn” and indeed Sanchez soaring technical artistry
“111” by Calvaire, the title refers to that time of early afternoons that Calvaire explained repeated found himself coincidentally composing the piece. Calvaire had been spitting atoms on the drums all night and that doesn’t refer to volume at all.
Davis’s “Teo” arranged by David Sanchez and as Sean Jones noted afterward “my mother would say, he’s making love to that horn” and indeed Sanchez soaring technical artistry had the audience panting for more.
For the tour, the group switches up the playlist per concert, with repertoire that includes “Milestones,” “Nardis, ” “Bitches Brew,” “Tutu” and others that span every phase of Davis’ eras. On this night, their encore was the iconic ‘So What’ just capping off an altogether magical concert event that evokes the eternal power of Davis’ influence on generations of musicians. SFJC’s arrangements have immediacy and build organically around Davis’ architecture, like a tree growing new branches in time lapse, and building even stronger musical branches.