Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 02/21/2006
Arranger, composer, and saxophonist
Paul Shapiro issued a whopper of a
Tzadik debut in
Midnight Minyan. That amazing set took six traditional Jewish melodies and ramped them up into a modern
jazz blend that took meaty bits and pieces from
post-bop and modal
jazz, and deep honking
R&B forms, and grafted them freely onto the originals. It was in his own compositions -- there were two -- where
Shapiro's true musical brilliance shown brightest. On
It's in the Twilight,
Shapiro turns that record inside out and performs six originals and two devotional pieces. The same band performs
Shapiro's music with energy, glee, and true sophistication. The romp starts on the first track,
"Light Rolls the Darkness," a traditional piece.
Shapiro grafts an Afro-Cuban rhythm and harmonic line onto the original melody and so what you get is a modern Jewish
bolero. There is no stretching involved, either. The front line with
Peter Apfelbaum and
Shapiro on saxophones,
Steven Bernstein on trumpet (and slide trumpet later) urged on by
Brian Mitchell's piano playing is utterly groove-driven. Drummer
Tony Lewis and bassist
Booker King can shift on a dime, but can take the entire mess deeper and wider.
Mitchell, for his part, allows traces of his influences to shine through from
Herbie Hancock and
Frank Emilio Flynn to
Ramsey Lewis and
Vince Guaraldi, his melodic and rhythmic sensibilities are fluid and in the pocket.
Shapiro's
"Children of Abraham" takes the big beat further on this gorgeous charger that brings in everyone from
Latin jazz maestros
Machito, and
Tito Puente to the
klezmer of
Dave Tarras. The lyric line is grafted onto
salsero and
bolero while remaining fully Jewish. But when the honking and shouting goes on in the solos, it's strictly edgy
post-bop with an ear for the rail. On
"Oy Veys Mir," the melodies come from Yiddish
folk forms but are laid out in bluesed-out Ellingtonia from the Cotton Club era as it met the great soloists of
the Duke's
Blanton-
Webster band. And so it goes: there isn't a moment on this wonderful set that doesn't push the listener toward delight; it swings, wails, sings, and cries with pleasure.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
;)
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