Due out May 3, 2024 via ArtistShare, the album reflects on the community that mentored Gordon with the one that now surrounds him, including Walter Smith III, Alan Ferber, John Ellis and Jocelyn Gould.
“Jon is one of the greatest alto players ever.” – Phil Woods
“Gordon has created a multifaceted statement that invites repeated investigations. He’s onto something important. ****1/2” – Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat review of Within Worlds
In the early 1980s, there was no better place for a jazz fan or aspiring musician to hang than Seventh Avenue South in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The street was lined with jazz clubs, including Sweet Basil, the Village Vanguard and a club the Brecker Brothers owned which was also called Seventh Avenue South. The Village Gate, Lush Life and the 55 Bar were all within easy walking distance.
Saxophonist Jon Gordon arrived on that scene in December 1983 and the experience changed his life. He reflects on that cherished time period on his stellar new album 7th Ave South, which looks back over the four decades that have passed since and the lasting impact that the musical community he found in the Village has made on his life and career. The album, due out May 3, 2024 via ArtistShare, features tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, trombonist Alan Ferber, trumpeter Jon Challenor, bass clarinetist John Ellis, guitarist Jocelyn Gould, pianist Will Bonness, bassist Julian Bradford, drummer Fabio Rangnelli and vocalists Joanna Majoko and Erin Propp, along with a choir on two tracks, bookending the set with soaring voices.
The native New Yorker was just 16 when he was escorted to the Breckers’ Seventh Avenue South by Margaret Davis, the lifelong jazz advocate who founded the Art Attack! newsletter and married and managed bassist Henry Grimes after his late-life reemergence. Davis was the mother of one of Gordon’s classmates and, upon hearing that he played the saxophone, invited him to join her for a concert by the Art Taylor Quartet with trumpeter Clark Terry, saxophonist Branford Marsalis and bassist Ron Carter.
“Seventh Avenue South was the first place I ever heard live jazz in New York,” Gordon recalls, still marveling at the iconic line-up that marked his first excursion into the jazz world. At Davis’ urging he meekly approached Ron Carter, the legendary bassist for Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, to introduce himself. He laughs, “I felt like such an annoying little mosquito, but I was so honored to talk to him. Then Clark Terry sang [his signature tune] ‘Mumbles’ at the end of the night. For a 16-year-old kid it was thrilling.”
Two weeks later Gordon returned to hear the Gil Evans Orchestra, and chatted with David Sanborn during a break. Sanborn suddenly asked the young saxophonist to fill in with him for the last set of the night, and promptly left the club. “Gil was very nice, but looked at me from head to toe in my jeans and t-shirt and kindly said, ‘How can I take a chance on you?’ But I was so happy to be there that I didn’t mind.”
Those were just the earliest of what became a treasure trove of memories formed as Gordon became a regular along the thoroughfare. It wasn’t long before he graduated from the audience to the stage, mentored by a host of elders and bandleaders including Eddie Chamblee, Doc Cheatham, Mike Stern, Charles McPherson, Joe Lovano, Barry Harris, Eddie Locke, Bennie Powell and Mel Lewis.
Beyond simply recalling that long-ago NYC scene, 7th Ave South is a celebration of community – the one from which he emerged in his early days as well as the one that he helps nurture now as a musician and a professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Most of the players on the album are fellow faculty or former students at the school. “A lot of the people I looked up to as mentors always told me to pass it on,” Gordon says. “I’m at that stage of my life, so I wanted to do my part to create that sense of community and interconnectedness that hopefully remains a part of what we do as musicians.”
He includes Margaret Davis, who passed away in January 1983, on that list of crucial inspirations. “She was hugely devoted to the music, and she was very kind to me and to a lot of other musicians, younger and older. Margaret is one of those dedicated fans that care and have a huge impact but aren’t always acknowledged.”
7th Ave South begins with a reprise of “Witness” from Gordon’s 1996 album Witness, stunningly rearranged for choir and piano trio. It serves as a fanfare for the album, leading directly into the fervent groove of the title track, which conjures the intensity of the unforgettable nights that the composer spent at the club and its neighbors. Drummer Quincy Davis spent a short tenure in Gordon’s quartet, and the saxophonist has long wanted to record his “Ponder This,” which he does with gorgeous wordless vocals by Majoko. “Paradox” was originally recorded on 2000’s Possibilities in a quintet with John Scofield and is rearranged for nonet by large ensemble specialist Alan Ferber.
Erin Propp’s winsome voice expresses the intimate emotions of Paul McCartney’s delicate melodies on the Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere,” and graces the vibrant “Visit,” an expansion of a piece from 2007’s Within Worlds. The invigorating “Ed’s Groove” is named for and inspired by the great Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon, who played on Gordon’s 1998 album Currents. The brief, through-composed “Intro” boldly sets the stage for “Spark,” a brisk swinger from Gordon’s 1995 album of the same name. The set concludes with a reprisal of “7th Ave South” featuring the choir.
Aside from the immortal (we hope) Vanguard, the geographical Seventh Avenue South may not be the thriving jazz hotbed that it once was. But on 7th Ave South Gordon makes clear that its spirit lives in those who were lucky enough to experience it and the rising generation who are carrying their torches.
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Jon Gordon
A native New Yorker, saxophonist and composer Jon Gordon has worked with Maria Schneider, Ron McClure, Clark Terry, Benny Carter, Phil Woods, T.S. Monk, Rufus Reid, Aretha Franklin, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Bill Charlap, Ray Barretto, Mark Turner, George Colligan, Chico Hamilton, Jimmy Cobb, Ben Riley, Harry Connick Jr., Bob Mintzer, Bill Mobley, Tony Bennett, Bruce Springsteen, Max Weinberg, The N.Y. Pops Orchestra, The Carolina Philharmonic, The Winnipeg Symphony orchestra, among many others. His album Stranger Than Fiction was nominated for a JUNO award for best jazz release of 2021.
Jon Gordon – 7th Ave South
ArtistShare – AS0229 – Recorded October 13-15, 2023
Release date May 3, 2024
jongordonmusic.com
artistshare.com
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