John Faddis and the Charlie Parker Legacy Band

Market Hall, Brecon
Brecon Jazz Festival
Sunday 14th August

A warm Sunday afternoon in the Welsh market town of Brecon, saw the remarkable talent of American trumpeter John Faddis take to the stage with his quintet, the Charlie Parker Legacy Band to perform a number items as part of their set for this year's 21st Festival. The inspiration for Faddis and his group was the 50th anniversary of the death of the ‘Bird', Charlie Parker, although as Faddis remarked, ‘…it really is the 85th anniversary of his birth'.

Faddis needs no introduction to brass lovers; the 52 year old having become an international icon of jazz following his entry into the genre as a young man with distinguished terms with the Lionel Hampton Band, Thad Lewis/Mel Lewis Big Bands as well as spells with Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Petterson, Count Basie and Charles Mingus amongst others.

He has played with them all – from Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra to the Rolling Stones, Kool and the Gang, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel and Stanley Clarke, and has been heard on film and television as well as being since 1995 the music director of the 1995 Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

As a headline act, they don't come much better.

In Brecon the quintet made up of Faddis, Jesse David on alto sax, Jimmy Cobb on drums, Ronnie Matthews on piano and Ray Drummond on bass gave an hour and a half set that not only paid homage to the ‘Bird' himself but also allowed them to treat the appreciative full house audience a chance to listen to some classics from the likes of Charlie Mingus.

Faddis of course is the star – no doubt about it, but he has surrounded himself with some quite remarkable talent. Jesse David is seen as one of the most progressive and exciting alto sax players around at present, whilst Jimmy Cobb was for a long time the drummer with Miles David during his outstanding ‘Kind of Blue' period. Ronnie Matthews was the pianist with Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie no less whilst Ray Drummond has a CV that contains the names of most of the jazz greats of modern times.

Faddis is also a quite stupendously, almost outrageously brilliant trumpet player. He possesses a technique that is nuclear reactor hot, a sound that made a dent in 200 year old stone walls of the Market Hall and an ability to extend the germ of a musical thought to an almost endless degree of intuitiveness and sophistication.  Even though he made a playful jibe at the heat in the venue (it was a bit muggy to say the least), he appeared as cool as the proverbial, with a deadpan line of humour that was as warm and engaging as his personality.

Faddis played off the audience in a friendly way, and played off the other members of the group with an in built degree of respect that acknowledged their talent and achievements.  Each of the players was given their head, with Jesse David in particular showing a remarkable degree of timing and style in the many periods of duet playing with Faddis.

The pieces themselves almost rolled into each other with the Charlie Parker sets such as ‘Parker's Mood' and ‘Cocoa' give slick performances amid some cooler intersections from Mingus such as his inspired ‘Around Midnight'.

Charlie Parker died in 1955 aged just 34, after a herculean effort of destruction that included an appetite for booze, drugs and prostitutes that would have killed a legion of 18 – 30 holiday makers. Why he did so has never really been answered although rumour has it that it all stemmed from an early humiliation at the hands of drummer Jo Jones at a jam session one night. Parker was so stung by it that he spent the remaining years of his life in freefall addiction to almost continuous practice on his sax and equally continuous self loathing and personal destruction. He was as free as a bird all right – but also as high as one most of the time as well.

This is of course forgiven by jazz fans – a strange mix at the best of times (you do wonder how many of the white, middle aged, middle class brigade who do make up a large portion of the audience and organizers here, are quite as liberal thinking when it comes to drugs, booze and fallen women in their day to day lives). Still, they all enjoyed the music.

Faddis displayed all his talents – from ear bleeding high notes, to facile technical runs that were just mesmerizing. Even with the best players in the brass band world, the average player has some sense of what and how they are playing – the technique required and the sense of musicianship, but with Faddis that link is lost.

You cannot quite get your head around what and how he plays in such a way. His technique is beyond comprehension, his range beyond our calculations and his musicianship just boggles you. Off he goes into a stratosphere of unmitigated brilliance that leaves you to smile that smile of joyous contemplation: you are hearing playing of a brass instrument from a different planet – as a player who is performing something you cannot quite comprehend but nevertheless entrances you with its beauty and scope. 

It all came to a rather abrupt end though – these guys played their set bang on the mark and right to the final paid minute, and then shot off, leaving the audience a bit bewildered, but nonetheless fully satisfied. As a tribute, Parker would have been proud, but then again, he may have been in the bar enjoying a pint, a fix and the company of some interesting ladies. They don't make them like that any more.

Iwan Fox

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