Driving in the Car
This month was a lot of fun, and I’ve spent a lot of hours driving in my car to and from NYC. It was a great experience working with Brian Charette in support of his latest trio release, Once & Future. We had gigs at the 55 Bar, Small’s, and a special all-star group at Club Bonafide last weekend with Doug Webb, Joe Magnarelli, and Peter Bernstein. My old friend Shawn Pelton from the Saturday Night Live Band stopped by to check out the music at the 55 Bar. It was great seeing him again!
I was honored to be a part of Brian Charette’s latest project, Once & Future. Brian’s arrangements, originals, and concept for this recording were stellar. We laid tracks in one day, and it was a ton of fun!
Here’s a review from the June 2016 issue of Downbeat Magazine.
Album Review: Brian Charette’s Once & Future
Posted 6/6/2016
Brian Charette
Once & Future
Posi-Tone
★ ★ ★ ½
In every jazz lover’s mind there exists the perfect Hammond B-3 organ player. Whether that ultimate B-3 technician is Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, Larry Young, or Shirley Scott, certain defining parameters exist, regardless of the individual player. But when it comes to Hammond B-3 mastery, Brian Charette wrote the book. Literally. His 101 Hammond B3 Tips (Hal Leonard) covers, among other topics, “funky scales and modes,” “creative chord voicings,” and “cool drawbar settings.” Even more proof of his proficiency is heard on Once & Future, where Charette gives a master class in the many styles of B-3 playing, joined by guitarist Will Bernard and drummer STEVE FIDYK.
Performing covers and original material, Charette’s B-3 touch is decidedly light, buoyant, and playful. He brings his style to bear on hardcore grits ‘n’ gravy groovers by the acknowledged masters of the genre, as well as fare that puts me in mind of a cocktail party circa 1963. In that way, Once & Future acts as a calling card of sorts, a sampler of the many styles Charette and the trio can bring to your next social function.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of steam and smoke to balance the lighter punch bowl offerings.
The album kicks off with Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” delivered in groove-a-licious waltz-time goodness. Bubbly, swinging, and steaming are apt descriptions here. The pace continues with Larry Young’s “Tyrone” (from 1965’s Into Somethin’), Bernard and Fidyk ramping up the temperature with able solos and fatback groove.
Charette’s sparkling “Latin from Manhattan” brings to mind Walter Wanderley as easily as it does Donald Fagen’s “Walk Between the Raindrops.” The trio knocks back Freddie Roach’s “Da Bug,” paints a dutiful rendition of “At Last,” and stomps hard on Jack McDuff’s “Hot Barbeque.”
Other highlights include a beautiful, if jocular, version of Bud Powell’s “Dance of the Infidels,” a note-perfect “Zoltan” as it appeared on Young’s 1966 masterpiece, Unity, and a cover of Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song.”
Both B-3 stylist and student, serious jazz scholar and glitzy entertainer, Charette is a burning soloist who understands the tradition of the Hammond B-3 as well its future—just as certainly as he understands his place in that lineage.
- Ken Micallef
Once & Future:
- “Jitterbug Waltz”
- “Tyrone”
- “Latin from Manhattan”
- “Da Bug”
- “At Last”
- “Hot Barbeque”
- “Dance of The Infidels”
- “Zoltan”
- “The Scorpion”
- “Falling Fourth”
- “Ain’t It Funky Now”
- “Mellow Mood”
- “Road Song”
- “Blues For 96”
(58:11)
Personnel:
- Brian Charette, Organ
- Will Bernard, Guitar
- STEVE FIDYK, Drums
