Byron Plays Walker
Don Byron and band salute the sax man of soul at Ottawa Jazz Fest
Don Byron and a high-octane band perfectly replicated the sound of Junior Walker at the Ottawa Jazz Festival - and then some!
It was Junior Walker, the soul-singing sax man of the seventies, who famously asked, What does it take?
The answer, should the rest of the question be, "to energize an otherwise respectable but even tempered Ottawa Jazz Festival," is a salute to Walker himself by multi-instrumentalist Don Byron.
"When I think of Junior Walker," Byron reminisced reverently last night to a tepid mid-week crowd, "I think of house parties in the South Bronx." Spurred by warm memories, Byron and band got together in 2006 to record "Do The Boomerang," a loving tribute CD that is but a small sample of the pure, high musicality this ensemble displayed on the Festival's main stage.
This high-octane collective, featuring Byron on sax and bass clarinet, David Gilmour on guitar, George Coligan on organ, Brad Jones on bass, and Rodney Holmes on drums - not to mention the vocal contribution of idiosyncratic singer Dean Bowman - presented a program of signature Walker tunes, interrupted now and then by pieces from funk masters James Brown and Eddie Harris.
Byron opened the show with an unaccompanied solo on "Body Soul," good-naturedly messing with the crowd's head until Coligan's Hammond B piped in, and helped him to segue to the Walkeresque sound.
Byron's Walker imitation is exact - no surprise for a player for whom nothing is impossible. It's all there: the distinctly urban cry of both joy and desperation, the trim, expressive phrases, the residue of '50s R&B honker retouched by Motown cool.
Vocal duties were left, naturally, to singer Bowman, a chanter of such distinct, irrepressible personality that imitation is strictly out of the question. Throughout the evening, Bowman broke into almost every number with his trademark yodel-scat, interpolating animal cries and McFerrin-like musings - all presented with an infectious, clownish style; he's a world music Louis Armstrong. It was talker, not Walker, but interesting and audience-appeasing nonetheless.
"Ain't That the Truth" introduced us to the virtuosic guitar of go-for-it Gilmour, from his countrified opening through to his generous helpings of Hendrix. Gilmour, along with organist Coligan, took the most extended solos of the night; such are their raw talents, individual commitments to the music, and inexhaustible invention that one could easily imagine each of them, like master Byron, playing a single song, ad inventum, over the course of a two hour evening.
There was a grounded, gritty version of "Road Runner" with Byron on bass clarinet, and a rendition of "Shotgun" that afforded bassist Jones his only opportunity to stretch out. He revealed a more serious-minded sound, though was alas upstaged by the Santana-style lines of Gilmour.
The band fared less well when covering other artists (is James Brown a tougher act to aspire to than Walker?), going from funky to functional - that is, until whenever Byron let loose, the removal of the burden of impression allowing him to be his full self, extending his sound into the cacophonic stratosphere.
At the concert's outset, Byron assured the crowd that this band was one that "you wouldn't kick out of your CD player for eatin' crackers." You wouldn't kick 'em outta a concert venue either, as they proved with conclusive, kick-ass commitment at the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival.
On an encouraging note, last night's main stage performance was preceded by a presentation by the Ontario Trillium Foundation - the donation of $70,000 to the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival, to be paid out over the next two years. Festival co-founder and longtime artistic director Jacques Emond was, in his own, ever quiet way, visibly appreciative - as are Ottawa's faithful jazz fans, thrilled to know that they're in store for more of the high caliber entertainment that this year's Fest has been providing.
