WALTER SMITH III / FRIDAY, MAY 15 / Cape May Convention Hall / 6:00-7:15 PM
The Story
One of the most outstanding tenor sax players on the scene today, Walter Smith III is a powerful improviser with a bent toward post-bop and modern jazz. On his recently released Twio, Vol. 2, his third album for Blue Note Records, Smith’s core trio of bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Kendrick Scott is augmented by special guests Ron Carter, who appears on five tracks, and fellow saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who goes toe-to-toe with Smith on his original “Casual-Lee,” a contrafact on the standard “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon).” Marsalis also appears on a burning two tenor rendition of “Swinging at the Haven,” written by his father Ellis Marsalis for Branford’s 1986 album, Royal Garden Blues. This companion piece to 2018’s Twio, Vol. 1 finds Smith and company tackling a program of familiar jazz standards in a piano-less setting (a la Sonny Rollins’ groundbreaking 1958 Blue Note album, A Night at the Village Vanguard). “The goal was to find tunes that are in the standard repertoire, but not the ones that everybody plays all the time,” said Smith. “We wanted tunes that are adjacent to those, that would allow us to play the way we play without trying to be too traditional with it.”
The Houston-born Smith, who came up in that city’s vaunted High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, first gained national attention from playing in the Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band, the Terence Blanchard Quintet and the Bill Stewart Trio while also touring with Jason Moran’s In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall project. He has also played on albums by trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Gerald Clayton, guitarist Dave Styker, trumpeters Christian Scott (aka Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah) and Sean Jones, drummer Eric Harland and vibraphonist Joel Ross and has 12 albums as a leader to his credit.
The Sound
Accompanied by bassist Harish Reghavan and drummer Kendrick Scott, Smith and his piano-less trio will have their way with old school standards like “My Ideal” and “I Should Care” as well as more modern tunes like Thelonious Monk’s “Light Blue,” Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan,” Kenny Dorham’s “Escapade,” Wayne Shorter’s “Fall,” Ellis Marsalis’ “Swinging at the Haven” and Carla Bley’s “Lawns.” Said the Berklee College of Music grad, who is also Chair of the Woodwind Department there: “We’ve done a lot of gigs with this trio, and we don’t talk about what we’re gonna play. We don’t call tunes. You just start playing and then see where it goes.”
