CuberQuest - Ronnie Cuber Quartet - Airplay

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“ An astonishingly lyrical player on that most unforgiving of instruments… It is the intelligence and subtlety of his playing that shines through …”

- Sunday Express UK

Every so often, I get caught up in the music of someone who floors me;  who - metaphorically - knocks me out.

Sometimes this involves a Jazz musician whose work is new to me.

But more often than not, these epiphanies usually happen when it’s the music of a musician that I am familiar with but whose discography I haven’t fully explored. But once I go for depth, I’m hooked and the more I dig the deeper I get into the power and passion of a particular player.

This pathology deepens and results in a gleeful quest to get my hands on anything and everything by the artist who is bringing so much joy into my Jazz listening life.

The source for my astonishment and wonderment with a given Jazz musician usually centers on what he or she is “saying” in their improvisations.

You hear it first in the phrasing and with the ready expression of ideas while soloing. Jazz soloing is like the geometric head start in the sense that you never catch up. When you improvise something it’s gone; you can’t retrieve it and do it again. You have to stay on top of what you are doing as Jazz is insistently progressive – it goes forward with you or without you.

People who can play the music, flow with it. Their phrasing is in line with the tempo, the new melodies that they superimpose over the chord structures are interesting and inventive and they bring a sense of command and completion to the process of creating Jazz.

Which brings me to baritone saxophonist, Ronnie Cuber.

Born on Christmas Day in 1941, Ronnie has been the source of a lot of musical holiday gifts for the past 77 years since his first “public” appearance with the Marshall Brown Youth Orchestra at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival.

Although, Ronnie did make some recordings under his own name for labels including Don Schlitten’s Xanadu, Orrin Keepnews at Milestone and the Electric Bird/King Record label in Japan, he didn’t really step into the solo spotlight until he began a long and continuing association in 1992 with Nils Winthur’s Steeplechase Records which is based in Denmark.

Over the 25 years since 1992, Ronnie has recorded six CDs for Steeplechase and they represent the most mature and comprehensive expression of his music.

The first of these - Ronnie Cuber Quartet - Airplay [Steeplechase label SCCD 31309] is a great place to begin because it’s where I started my personal CuberQuest and because the insert notes by the brilliant Jazz writer Mark Gardner offer an excellent overview of Ronnie’s career, as well as, a detailed examination of the influences on Ronnie’s style of playing and the elements that make it so unique.

“The baritone saxophone has come a long way from being the background horn that added bottom to the section. In the expert hands of Gerry Mulligan, Serge Chaloff, Cecil Payne, Leo Parker, Bob Gordon, Pepper Adams, Tate Houston, and Nick Brignola it assumed respected solo status in Modern Music. In the early 1960s a new, exciting stylist was heard on the bari - Ronnie Cuber. Most reminiscent of Leo Parker, he brought an ample technique, distinctive tone and swinging mobility to the big horn. Most of all his playing brimmed with vitality and enthusiasm.

Thirty years on [these notes were written in 1992] in an always stimulating career and Ronnie still keeps that hot flame burning brightly. His work is now more rich and complex, but the youthful energy remains like a powerhouse of untapped reserves. The ears have remained open and, significantly, on this his first album as a leader for Steeplechase, Ronnie has surrounded himself with younger men who possess the spark that ignites fires.

Listeners unfamiliar with the Cuber sound and biography should know that he was born on Christmas Day, 1941, in New York, grew up as part of a musical family, studied clarinet and played tenor sax at high school in Brooklyn and won a seat in Marshall Brown's Newport Youth Band alter the leader persuaded him to switch to baritone and bought him an instrument.

That was in 1959 and Ronnie and bari have been companions ever since. Influences included Hank Mobley, Pepper Adams, Cecil Payne and John Coltrane. Accidentally, it seems, his conception contained elements of Leo Parker's tone and drive. Through the 1960s Cuber was able to work with a succession of big bands - Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman - which was invaluable in the jazz learning process.

He was also heard in the small groups of Slide Hampton and George Benson, with whom he made four albums including the important It's Uptown and The George Benson Cookbook. After hearing Ronnie's coruscating solo on Ain't That Peculiar in the former set I became a Cuber convert instantly.

In the following decade, a poor one for jazz, Ronnie worked in lazz-rock and Latin-jazz contexts, backed Aretha Franklin and finally got the chance to record two albums under his own leadership, Cuber Libre and The Eleventh Day Of Aquarius, for Xanadu, also appearing on releases by Sam Noto, Mickey Tucker and the Montreux All Stars for the same label.

At the end of the 1970s he was a member of the Lee Konitz Nonet which recorded for Steeplechase. Since that time he has mostly worked at the helm of his own small group, often a quartet, and has blossomed out as a composer of real substance. Six of his originals are included in the enclosed programme of gripping performances. Each displays a different facet ol the composer/soloist's musical personality as well as an individual mood.

Lending Ronnie unflagging and imaginative support from start to finish are three accomplished musicians well chosen for the assignment - Geoff Keezer (piano), Chip Jackson (bass) and Ben Perowsky (drums).

Geoff Keezer (born, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1970) was encouraged by pianist James Williams and after a year's study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Geoff made his debut album for Sunnyside with Williams as producer. He has already worked with an impressive array of names including Art Blakey and recorded an album of his own for Blue Note. Keezer has exceptional facility and great feeling.

Chip Jackson, another former Berklee student, has been active since the early 1970s and past credits include spells with Gary Burton, Woody Herman, Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Red Rodney, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones. A skilled arranger and valued teacher, he is no stranger to the recording studios, having made many albums with the likes of Herman, Chuck Mangione, lack Walrath and Elvin lones.

Ben Perowsky, alert and swinging behind his drums, completes a Berklee triumvirate. Originally inspired by Tony Williams, Ben was helped by his father, tenor saxophonist Frank Perowsky. He has worked with Mike Stern and Bob Berg, James Moody, Roy Ayers and Ricki Lee Jones. He enjoys playing in other musical styles besides jazz. "I come from a family of dancers so I like to see people move, and hearing my dad play since I was a kid helped me develop my musical ear," Ben told Georgia Antonopoulos.

The relaxed opener in this set, is Ronnie's bluesy and modally inclined Bread And Jam, at a nice loping tempo. After the theme, Keezer launches into an excellent solo in which his phrasing sometimes suggests Wynton Kelly and Phineas Newborn. Ronnie rolls relentlessly along in his portion and it's back to the main strain - with no strain. The nifty arrangement makes good use of little drum climaxes.

New Orleans 1951, on an AABA pattern, is really a funky, soul blues with a bridge to add a dash of southern spice. The rhythmic climate would not be alien to rock or rhythm and blues performers. It's a recipe for grooving and Ronnie points the way to be followed by Geoff and a composed Chip Jackson. Although dated 1951, the feel here is definitely of the late 1960s. Cuber fashions an extended, creative ending.

Chip Jackson's Pit Inn is a message in mixed metres, starting in waltz time but easily switched to 4/4, and suggesting other times, when the participants choose. Ronnie and Geoff display great control and involvement, testing their imaginations without losing contact with the material. Jackson steps in for a hugely satisfying unaccompanied solo. Note his arco work in unison with Cuber - two sounds merging to create a new one.

On One For Hank, dedicated to Hank Mobley, Ronnie remembers affectionately his early influence and succeeds in transferring to the baritone, Mobley's long, lithe lines. Hank did not possess a knock-'em-dead tone, but made audiences sit up and listen by logic and elegance of his sinuous improvisations. Cuber catches that feeling of archetypal hard bop here and recalls the flawless phrasing of the maestro.

Jazz Cumbia is an excursion into the Latin vein with Ben applying an appropriate beat and percussive licks. Geoff combines the authentic voicings from the Latin piano style with some Monk shades that fit the context. Cuber, at his most vocal and expressive, employs the lull scope of his horn in a solo ol surging momentum, Jackson makes his bass sing in unusual ways before the quartet chugs on out into a Mexican sunset.

The aptly-named Passion Fruit combines good melodic ideas with typical blues phrases within a Summertime feeling. Ronnie shows his admiration for the' running and leaping style of Cecil Payne here. There's no sag in the passion when Keezer takes over.

Trane's Waltz, the second 3/4 offering of the set, could easily become one of my favourite things which it emulates as a hip-notic re-enactment of a familiar contour. Ronnie's explorations are deep and decisive as he rides a barrage backdrop as Coltrane did so effectively in the early 1960s. The challenge is for the soloist to make the most of the minimal changes with a constantly interesting lateral line. In some hands it can become tedious; Ronnie Cuber keeps it fresh and fine.

Ronnie's Airplay, the title track, was heard first on the Konitz album, Yes, Yes Nonet (Steeplechase SCCD 31119) and loses nothing in its transfer to a quartet setting. Like so many of Cuber's tunes it has startling melodic surprises and rhythmic shifts that are integral parts of the musical fabric. The composer shows his will to wail, and the performance gathers in intensity as it unfurls. By the end his bari must have been close to meltdown! All of which is indicative of how much thought and feeling Ronnie puts into his music.

Commitment has always been high on Ronnie Cuber's priority list. There are no half measures. The myth of the baritone being cumbersome passes into fiction, where it belongs, when you hear just how versatile and responsive the big horn can be under the controlled command of a virtuoso. His overdue return as a leader on this date will be welcomed by jazzers everywhere as a sign that the good guys prevail.”

Mark Gardner

Co-author, The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz