JEFF RUPERT

IT GETS BETTER

Rupe Media

Jeff Rupert, tenor saxophone; Kenny Barron, piano; Peter Washington, bass; Joe Farnsworth, drums.

When I see all-star credits listed on an album jacket, I know I’m going to enjoy the music, even before it wafts across my space.  Jeff Rupert is a distinguished professor at the University of Central Florida, as well as an esteemed jazz saxophonist. The list of legends that he has performed with is long and illustrious including Benny Carter, Sam Rivers, Diane Schuur, Mel Torme, Maynard Ferguson and the list goes on.  As a bandleader, he has released several well-received albums with his own quartet.  As a composer and arranger, his creative works have been performed by Bob Berg, James Moody, Maynard Ferguson, Kenny Drew Jr., Kevin Mahogany and Judy Carmichael.

On this release, Rupert features his own compositions and three standard tunes. One is “Lana Turner” composed by Billy Strayhorn. According to his press sheet, it’s actually an early iteration of Strayhorn’s classic “Charpoy” composition. Rupert and the all-star trio play this one in a very bluesy style. Rupert has such a fireside, warm tone on his tenor sax. His horn has the power of a seducer, smoothly drawing me into the production, a spider to the fly so to speak.  Kenny Barron’s soulful blues piano is (as always) wonderful during his solo expression.

I enjoy Rupert’s composition, “Pharoah’s Daughter” with its dark, minor tones and rich melody. His arrangement injects those unexpected intervals. He wrote this tune about the woman who rescued Moses from the Nile River, according to a variety of faiths. Barron’s creativity during his piano solo is provocative and Joe Farnsworth eggs him on with bright drum licks.  Rupert takes his interpretation of this tune to the outer realms of his saxophone.  It’s what jazz cats sometimes refer to as taking the music “outside.”  I like it!  This quickly became one of my favorites of this production.

Their ’cover’ of the popular “Like Someone in Love” is a tune they warmed up with in the studio and it features the dynamic Peter Washington on bass, walking briskly beneath Rupert’s horn to open this piece.  The sparseness of just drums, bass and horn is a striking way to play this tune. It highlights the brilliance of Peter Washington on bass and gives Joe Farnsworth several bars to shine on his trap drums. I love this arrangement.

“Nowhere to go But Up” was composed by Marc Shaiman for the film “Mary Poppins Returns” and celebrates the umbrella toting nanny in a very jazzy way.  The tremolo that Rupert plays on his tenor saxophone gives the feeling of something elevating into space during this jazz waltz.

There is a positive musical statement stated in “It Gets Better” by a group of four master musicians, who not only entertain us with their extraordinary talents, but infuse the music with a sense of freedom and hope.  Listening to this quartet is pure joy.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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