A text search on the full list of nominees for the 2020 GRAMMY Awards revealed that Vince Mendoza is associated with three albums, one of which has nominations in two different categories. This should come as no surprise to anyone that knows that Mendoza already has six of these awards on his mantlepiece (physical or virtual). One of his achievements this year that was overlooked is a tribute album that could not be more of a labor of love.
Terell Stafford and Dick Oatts performing with the Temple University Studio Orchestra (courtesy of DL Media)
Constant Renaissance is a three-movement composition written on a commission from Temple University in Philadelphia. Its performance by the Temple University Studio Orchestra, led by Mendoza, was recorded and released by BCM&D Records this past August. (This is the university’s own label, named for its Boyer College of Music and Dance.) Featured soloists were trumpeter Terell Stafford and alto saxophonist Dick Oatts. This is another example of negligence by Amazon.com, which apparently believes that this recording exists only in digital form. Fortunately, CD Baby has created a single product page for both physical and digital purchase; and, as an added bonus, that Web page includes all of the album notes, including an extended essay by Mendoza.
The album title refers to the fact that Philadelphia was the birthplace of three jazz figures that now have iconic status, each for his/her own distinct reasons. Each of the three movements of Constant Renaissance serves as an homage to one of those figures. In the order of those movements, they are Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane. The movement titles are “Bebop Elation,” “Solace and Inspiration,” and “Love, A Beautiful Force.”
To be fair, Mendoza does not try to appropriate any of the “source material” of these jazz icons. As might be guessed, Oatts has an extended solo in the Coltrane movement; and it suggests Coltrane’s ability to extend his improvisations over significant duration. However, Oatts does not go on at that length, allowing the music to be more about the relationship between soloist and ensemble. Similarly, there is no vocal performance in the Holiday movement; but, more critically, there never seems to be much of an attempt to evoke the idiosyncrasies of her intonation, which is what made her performances so arresting. Gillespie is represented by a few “signature” fragments from Stafford; but Stafford is not focused on “channeling” Gillespie any more than Oatts was trying to “channel” Coltrane.
It goes without saying that Gillespie, Holiday, and Coltrane account for a significant share of the recordings in my personal collection. I return to them frequently and always seem to discover something new with each visit. Thus, while I appreciate Mendoza’s “labor of love,” I did not find any of his evocations particularly convincing.
Mind you, I was fifteen years old when Mendoza was born. Only a few years later I would be working at a campus radio station, where the arrival of an Impulse! Records Coltrane album was always treated as a significant event. (Coltrane also performed at our campus.) While I was too busy with Philadelphia Orchestra Children’s Concerts to appreciate the impact of Gillespie and Holiday, initial exposure to the Impulse! recordings enabled me to “look backwards” and appreciate the broad scope of jazz creativity that extended over about half a century. Mendoza never quite caught the spirit of that scope in Constant Renaissance, but perhaps his generation will warm to his composition more that I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment