Tribute to the Trumpet Gives Credit Where It’s Due

The trumpets were front and center Sunday night for the closing concert in the first installment of SFJazz Spring Season 2001. And appropriately so, because the three-day event--the first of six programs stretching from February through May--was titled “The Trumpet.”

To underscore the instrument’s vital and continuing role in jazz, the festival’s creative director, Joshua Redman, and the event’s director and founder, Randall Kline, came up with an impressive group of players to headline the celebration. Reaching across the spectrum of both age and gender, they assembled Terence Blanchard, Eddie Henderson, Brian Lynch and Ingrid Jensen--each an appealing individual stylist, all playing at the peak of their game.

Further emphasizing the trumpet’s role beyond the familiar sounds of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, the evening was dedicated to the music of Woody Shaw and Freddie Hubbard.

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Shaw, who died in 1989 at the age of 44, was a determined individualist, moving powerfully, if somewhat erratically, on his own musical path before an accident ended his life. Hubbard, 62, has been a top-level performer since he worked with the likes of Eric Dolphy, Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins and others when he was barely past his 20th birthday. Both Shaw and Hubbard have had a powerful influence--not often acknowledged--upon the young trumpeters of the past two decades, and it was good to hear Blanchard, who hosted the program, reiterate that influence.

The evening’s first half concentrated upon Shaw originals--”Rosewood,” “Moon Trane,” “Katrina Ballerina” and “To Kill a Brick” among them. Ably supported by the all-star rhythm section of pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Carl Allen, with additional support from trombonist Steve Turre, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and vibist Bobby Hutcherson, the trumpeters winged high and fast through the music.

Among the many high points were an I-can-do-anything-you-can-do duel between Henderson and Lynch and an emotionally layered fluegelhorn solo from Jensen on “Katrina Ballerina.”

The Hubbard music from the second half, which included the lovely “Up Jumped Spring” and the boppish “Bird Like” (played in dramatic unison by all four trumpets), was equally stunning. Jensen, Henderson and Lynch were especially compelling for their highly personal styles, unrestricted by the Wynton Marsalis musical formula that has impacted so many players.

And Blanchard, a stunning technician, moved beyond his articulateness and into the deep emotional heart of his improvisational abilities.

All in all, Shaw and Hubbard couldn’t have asked for better musical advocates, and SFJazz couldn’t have asked for a better climax to its opening spring event.