![\"Smalls\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Smalls.jpg\")
<\/a>Smalls Jazz Club is in the eighth year of its most recent incarnation as a bastion of uncompromising jazz in New York City. A couple of blocks down 7th Avenue from the Village Vanguard, a couple up from The Garage, it is in a part of Greenwich Village that may be as close as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see to a 21st century equivalent of the 52nd Street of the 1940s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s. In addition to presenting established musicians—Jimmy Cobb, Ethan Iverson, Jeremy Pelt and Peter Bernstein, among others—Smalls’ primary resuscitator, the pianist Spike Wilner, seeks out rising young players. Tonight, for instance, guitarist Avi Rothbard, tenor saxophonist Tivon Pennicott and bassist Spencer Murphy will lead successive groups, with Murphy playing after hours until the unspecified closing time.<\/p>\nSmalls<\/a> produces CDs and live video performances streamed on the internet. Among the 40 CDs in its Live At Smalls catalog are three recent ones by Johnny O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal, David Berkman and Frank Lacy, all recorded at the club.<\/p>\n O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal is a Detroit pianist who made a splash in New York in the 1980s, then was largely unheard from for a couple of decades until his comeback in 2010. Self-taught, he is often mentioned as having Pianist David Berkman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album for Smalls<\/a> has the recognition advantage of featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell as a sideman, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not Harrell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s star quality that Trombonist Lacy is one of the most flamboyant practicioners on an instrument that lends itself to blowsiness, but in his Smalls CD<\/a> he is relatively restrained at the helm of a sextet of bright young New Yorkers. That is not to say that Lacy doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t burst forth with keenly placed blurts and blats, as in his harmonically rich \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spirit Monitor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but at times he is downright lyrical. His colleagues in the front line are tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard and trumpeter [contextly_auto_sidebar id=”Em0JeDIncJodW1DxUiGHLBlMATyV6vpN”] Smalls Jazz Club is in the eighth year of its most recent incarnation as a bastion of uncompromising jazz in New York City. A couple of blocks down 7th Avenue from the Village Vanguard, a couple up from The Garage, it is in a part of Greenwich Village that may be as close […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> technique that compares with Art Tatum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, although there are no overt Tatum references in his CD. What grabs the listener as O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Live At Smalls<\/a> recording opens is his grainy singing of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The More I See You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d impeccable in swing and intonation. Elsewhere in the album, his vocal performances are less even. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pianism that carries the day. The album includes a delicious exercise in dynamic variety and keyboard touch on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blues For Sale,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an intriguing version of Walter Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uranus,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a reflective unaccompanied \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Goodbye,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and energetic compatibility with bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Charles Goold in a medley of Roberta Flack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where is the Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Stevie Wonder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Overjoyed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fierceness and execution are absolute in his solo on Billy Pierce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sudan Blue.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilner acquits himself nicely as he sits in on piano to accompany O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vocal and to solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tea For Two.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal wraps up with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let The Good Times Roll,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a title that sums up the collegial feeling of the album and his connection with the audience. O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neal was featured in a recent New York Times<\/em> profile.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/a>accounts for the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success. It is Berkman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musicianship and the interaction that he, Harrell bassist Ed Howard and drummer Jonathan Blake achieve. On the trio piece \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For Kenny,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Berkman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fluidity, energy and harmonic intensity make it clear that this relatively unknown Clevelander who teaches at Queens College in New York is in the top tier of contemporary pianists. His compositions \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ghost Wife\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Small Wooden Housekeeper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are demanding vehicles that stimulate Harrell to intriguing, and frequently witty, harmonic solutions. Berkman and Harrell make their unaccompanied duet on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Body and Soul\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an intimate conversation that Harrell seasons by working a quote from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Gypsy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of all things, into a place where it might not be reasonably expected to fit. It is refreshing to hear a contemporary group bring bebop verve to John Lewis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Milestones\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and lace it with new harmonic daring. <\/p>\n<\/a> Josh Evans, both impressive for enthusiasm and command of their instruments. Dillard switches to soprano sax for an exotic, chancy solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spirit Monitor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Reaching high enough that he occasionally shows a bit of strain, Evans nonetheless manages logic and continuity in his flow of ideas on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carolyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dance,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which features Lacy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s granular voice in the passionate lyric to his love song. The rhythm section is Theo Hill, piano; Rashaan Carter, bass; and Kush Abadey, drums. According to the evidence here, Abadey is a listening drummer who designs accents and off-beats in reaction to the ideas of the soloists. In his solo on Joe Bonner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sunbath,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lacy manages to meld impressions of desperation and self-assuredness, after which Hill, unfazed by the contradiction, constructs a piano solo of quiet serenity. Without succumbing to crass imitation, Evans evokes Freddie Hubbard on Hubbard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Intrepid Fox.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"