CD Review - Don Byron: Ivey-Divey - Page 2

That’s a funny word, “loose,” because at no point on Ivey-Divey do the players lose the beat or lay back into a groove. Instead, the players are loose like a great double-play combo are loose: everything locks into place in a ballet of perfectly timed split-second moves that look effortless but are in fact halfway superhuman. This is fitting, because Lester Young was the master of loose. A player of enormous talent and discipline, he played often softly, usually gracefully, and yet always forcefully. The surface attractions of his style masked a deep cerebral side that only emerges when you look closely at the careful composition of his solos. Moreover, Young seemed to make things fun for everyone playing with him, even when he played ugly.

Fittingly, Ivey-Divey is a fun record. On the four tunes taken from the Lester Young repertoire, “I Want To Be Happy,” “Somebody Loves Me,” “I Cover the Waterfront” and “I’ve Found a New Baby,” the trio dig in with verve and wit, with Moran scattering harmonies underneath Byron’s fleetfooted lines as DeJohnette holds them both together. On these selections, Byron sticks to a relatively tonal Lester Young script for the most part, only moving into growly harmonics and outside sounds on “I’ve Found a New Baby” and an alternate take of “Somebody Loves Me.” But where Young would have laid back Byron steps into space, transforming lines reminiscent of Young into energetic outbursts. For all Byron’s pyrotechnics, all four Young pieces are anchored by Moran and DeJohnette to a sense of lighthearted and generous… fun.

The rest of the album revisits Lester Young’s legacy from varying points of view. But more than simply being a lesson album: Don Byron Plays The Great Lester Young, the band bring Young’s influence to the table as just one ingredient of their sound. Sometimes the connection is literal: Byron picks up the tenor saxophone to lay down some lines a la Lester on “The Goon Drag” (which Young recorded in 1941). But on other cuts like quartet readings of Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader” and “In A Silent Way,” the group walk a line between Davis’ chilly cool, Young’s gentle beauty, and Byron’s own playful mania before taking off in unexpected directions. “In A Silent Way” also features Byron on the bass clarinet in a groovy turn that evokes Bennie Maupin’s work on Davis’ Bitches Brew. (Jack DeJohnette actually played on Bitches Brew and helps out by hinting at the “chakaCHAKAchakaCHAKA” groove he laid down on cuts like “Pharoah’s Dance.)

Article Author: John Owen

John Owen is a music writer, multi-instrumentalist and music industry veteran based in coastal Massachusetts.

Visit John Owen's author page — John Owen's Blog