The Charlie Porter Quartet was brought to Hyderabad by the American Consulate General, Hyderabad
Charlie Porter is the trumpet player and
the leader of the Quartet, the other three musicians of the quartet are Adam
Birnbaum (Piano), Scott Ritchie (Bass) And Jon Wikan (Drums). The Quartet is a
tight working group which played engaging, mainstream, straight ahead Jazz
without electronic gimmickry. They brought out the beauty and joy of Jazz,
otherwise considered a more intellectual music and made it accessible to those
who listen to music other than Jazz.
The Quartet played to a
receptive audience with whom Charlie Porter created a rapport and connected, making the quartet messengers of this wonderful
and misunderstood music called jazz.
To be called Jazz, the music has to swing, and when one listens to Jazz, the music and rhythms
make our body sway, they don’t make you rock. Another element of Jazz, are those
peculiarly placed flattened notes used within the scale which would seem
dissonant but are not. The third element that makes jazz, jazz, is that it is
partly planned and partly spontaneous, with a section within the composition
which gives way to improvisation, making the proponent extend the established
composition, creating, composing, and taking the melody forward on the spot,
taking it into a different dimension within the structure of the music, taking
it to a logical point and coming back to the written melody, using well
constructed sentences (which is called good phrasing), all within the
framework and discipline of the progression of chords. The fourth element of
jazz is emotion; jazz always touches you in some way or the other. Jazz brings
out the meaning of the music.
The Charlie Porter Quartet played a mix
of the quartets’ own compositions and Jazz standards. But, whatever they
played, their arrangements were well thought out, elegant and smooth.
They played several original compositions by Charlie Porter himself, starting
with their opening tune ‘Initiation Song’ which he had based on Australian
Aboriginal music. A sort of Hard Bop composition called ‘Messenger’ which was his
homage to Art Blakey, the great jazz drummer and his various ensemble’s always
called the Jazz Messengers, ‘Up-a-Notch Boogie’, which took the Boogie to a new
height. And, ‘Passing Time’ on which Charlie Porter played with a Harmon mute,
which gave Miles Davis his distinctive, plaintive sound.
Adam Birnbaum, the pianist, also
contributed to the evening with a composition
of
his own called ‘Urgency’, an elaborate, yet well arranged composition. And the
drummer, John Wikan, contributed a mellow composition called ‘66 Mike’.
The Quartet also played Standards and
compositions by well known jazz musicians: ‘Basin Street Blues’, a Spencer
Williams composition made famous in 1928 by Louis Armstrong, ‘A Night in
Tunisia’ by Dizzy Gillespie, which Charlie Porter re-christened ‘A Night in
Hyderabad’ just for the evening, ‘Caravan’ by Duke Ellington, which the Quartet
had segued onto the pianist Adam Birnbaum’s
composition ‘Urgency’. The quartet also did a jazz arrangement of Jai
Ho, the popular A.R Rehman hit, and a sensitive closing arrangement of ‘Jana
Gana Mana’, the national Anthem.
Some of the other compositions that they
played were ‘Straight, No Chaser’
and
‘In Walked Bud’ by Thelonius Monk, ‘Take the A Train’ by Billy Strayhorn, a staple of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and
Paul Desmond’s ‘Take 5’, made famous by
Dave Brubeck in whose Quartet Paul Desmond played saxophone.
The Charlie
Porter Quartet is a well knit band, they played a series of tight arrangements
with practised effortlessness. Every member of the band played together as a
unit, yet each had his own voice; they had their own sound and style, though
one did hear references to some of the greats while they played.
Charlie Porter himself is a very
accomplished trumpeter with great technical mastery over his instrument, and he
could make the trumpet growl and slide, he could take high notes and low, and
though he has a very classical tone, he used the mute and the plunger well, invoking
humour and pathos at will.
The Pianist Adam Birnbaum was a
quintessential accompanist, and played a keyboard, and not a piano, using different,
but appropriate tone settings, yet when he took his solos’, they were well
defined and telling, speaking well for his attitude and sensitivity as a Jazz
musician.
The bass player, Scott Ritchie, who played
an upright bass, was a creative accompanist who was always sensitive to the
music and always played the most fitting notes; being felt rather than heard,
yet when he took the hot spot in the arrangement, he showed his creativity and
good technique. Scott Ritchie’s sound
was unique, and very listenable.
The drummer, Jon Wigan, is the perfect
accompanist, never intrusive, never being anything but subtle; his drumming a
tribute to low key accompaniment, but by itself so expressive, so right, yet
his breaks were always melodic.
The audience empathised with the music, and Charlie Porter who
made the announcements, made forays into the audience while playing, especially
playing to the children in the audience, who loved the attention they got and
became fans of the music.
These evenings of Jazz music were what Hyderabad US
For Hyderabad
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