Charles Tolliver Big Band
With Love

(Blue Note/Mosaic)

First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2007, Volume 14, #7

Written by John Metzger

Sat July 28, 2007, 06:00 AM CDT

Charles Tolliver has been out of sight and out of mind for the better part of 30 years, but after relaunching his Big Band to perform a series of concerts in 2003, he now has turned his attention to restoring his legacy as a composer and arranger. His opening salvo is the seven-track set With Love, and while it isn’t necessarily an unqualified success, it shows that Tolliver hasn’t lost his penchant for crafting relentlessly exhilarating music. The opening cut Rejoicin’ sets the tone for the endeavor as trumpets, saxes, and trombones send forceful, punchy blasts of color sailing over the song’s crackling, propulsive rhythm, while newcomer Robert Glasper nearly steals the show with a frantic piano solo that twists McCoy Tyner’s inventive approach into knots. Glasper strikes again during Hit the Spot by sparring playfully with drummer Victor Lewis. Providing some stylistic contrast, Tolliver’s longtime collaborator Stanley Cowell matches Glasper’s spunk, particularly on Mournin’ Variations, which fuses a hymn-like procession of flute, clarinet, and sax with the turbulent drama unleashed by the full ensemble.

Elsewhere on With Love, however, Tolliver falters. The title track, for example, seems stuck in the ’70s, and his manic energy doesn’t jive well with the song’s relaxed, swinging groove. Likewise, his interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight, while intriguing, never finds a way of comfortably uniting its polarized extremes. Although Tolliver’s risk-taking maneuvers are refreshing — especially when one considers how conservative the music industry has become, regardless of genre — they also occasionally become mired in the busyness of his arrangements. For all its flashiness, for all its explosiveness, deep down inside With Love, the emotion is missing.

With Love is available from Barnes & Noble.
To order, Click Here!

Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2007 The Music Box