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“He favored the big side of
the horn, playing a hard-bop vocabulary with great power and command. …
his virtues are a great sound, great time, smart tune selection, and a band
that cooks at a great temperature.”
- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th ED.
Having previously
posted features on baritone saxophonists Pepper Adams, Serge
Chaloff, Gerry Mulligan, Ronnie Cuber and Gary Smulyan, the
editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it might be fun to spend a little time
with the music of Nick Brignola.
As Jazz author and
critic, Herb Wong has pointed out: “Although the baritone saxophone is his
instant identification, Brignola has a masterful command of a veritable arsenal
of a dozen woodwind instruments.” In addition to Nick’s work on baritone, I am
especially fond of his work on soprano saxophone.
When Nick solos,
the burners are switched on to maximum for as his counterpart on baritone
saxophone, Gary Smulyan proclaims: “Nick doesn’t just blow into the horn – he
screams into it!”
As is the case
with Smulyan, Nick started off as an alto saxophone/clarinet player.
“‘A little more
wind and you can play the same stuff.’
Maybe not one of
the more interesting quotes in jazz history, but that remark — made by ‘the guy
at the music store’ where aspiring alto saxophonist/clarinetist Nick Brignola
went to get his alto repaired — changed the course of Brignola's musical life
back in the distant '50s. See, the guy at the store didn't have an alto to lend
Nick, so, since the baritone's in the same key, he laid the big horn on him.
‘When I brought it
on the gig,’ says Nick, ‘the musicians that were on the gig — well, I guess
they just hadn't heard a baritone, 'cause they all wigged out. It was like.
'Oh, that's the axe you should play.’” [Lee Jeske, insert notes to Raincheck,
Reservoir RSR CD 106].
In interviews,
Nick ventured that he was “trying to showcase the baritone saxophone which I
think is the horn that best expresses me” and added that what he was trying to
do with his music was “… to make a statement, extending the range of the horn.”
When you listen to
what Nick can do on the baritone sax, there seems to be little doubt that he
has accomplished his objective. The man is all over the axe and seems to take
it wherever he wants to go – effortlessly.
This ease of
execution on such an awkward instrument can lead to taking what Nick does on
the baritone sax for granted until you stop and realize the complexity of
the improvisations he is creating.
“When I start
playing, swinging is automatic,” Brignola notes, “and I like playing long
interesting lines utilizing substitute chord changes.”
Trombonist Bill
Watrous says of Nick: “His ideas are unending … he is unflagging and his thrust
is unbending.”
Trumpeter Ted
Curson observed: “Nick is a natural player. And lot’s of people can get into
what he’s doing, but he doesn’t sound like any other musician.”
In his insert
notes to Nick’s L.A. Bound CD [Night Life Records NLR 3007] Dr. Herb Wong comments
that “Brignola’s solos are fiery and animated. … The character of his playing
includes personalizing every note – whether the notes are part of a brief
comment or an elongated musical essay.
A value judgment
from Woody Herman adds a summary of interest. He has said on several occasions
that besides the late Serge Chaloff [the vanguard bop baritone saxophonist of
the early Herman “Herd” on the 1940s], he would cite Nick Brignola as ‘the
other dynamite baritone player’ he has really dug in the bands that he has led
over his 40+ year career as a bandleader.”
With the help of
the crackerjack graphics team at CerraJazz LTD and the production facility at
StudioCerra, we have developed the following video tribute to Nick on which he
is joined by trombonist Bill Watrous, pianist Dwight Dickerson, bassist John
Heard and drummer Dick Berk in a performance of Horace Silver’s Quicksilver.
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