WINARD HARPER SEXTET
Make It Happen
Piadrum
Winard Harper is a talented drummer whose
influences include Art Blakey, Max Roach, Jackie McLean,
and Cannonball Adderley, but whose most profound influence
is drummer Billy Higgins. Higgins influenced Harper not
only as a drummer, but as a musician whose sense of joy
and discovery was palpable, both live and on record. In
addition, Higgins was interested in music from all over
the world and in sometimes-exotic instruments. All of these
influences come across on the latest recording by the Winard
Harper Sextet, Make It Happen.
This disc truly has the appeal of an instant
classic. Exploring African and Carribean rhythms in compositions
by Harper, various band members, special guests, and jazz
greats, the band provides a nearly perfect seventy-eight
minute program of music. Released on the small independent
label Piadrum, this is nonetheless one of the best jazz
small group recordings to arrive during the course of the
year thus far.
The opener, Charlie Parker’s “Segment”
features a bebop front line playing over a rhythm section
that displays distinctly West Indian overtones. Stacy Dillard
provides a meaty tenor solo over this rhythmic crosscurrent,
followed by the straight-ahead bop statement from trumpeter
Josh Evans. Pianist Sean Higgins provides a montuno section
that leads into his own hard-driving solo before the head
returns. Ruben Browne’s “Children of the World”
opens with a salvo of talking drum, conga, and various other
percussion instruments. “This is the first time I
have been able to put all of the percussionists together
on one record” says Harper, referring to the four
percussionists featured on Make It Happen. T.W.
Sample’s piano work brings a McCoy Tyner edge to the
proceedings, and the tune’s modal melody is vaguely
Trane-ish.
Guests abound on this recording, including
alto saxophonist Antonio Hart, who contributes his playing
to “Morning Glow,” “Tamisha,” and
“I’ve Never Been In Love Before.” Wycliffe
Gordon plays trombone on “Make It Happen,” his
own composition “Get It! Get It!,” and “After
Hours.” He also contributes an introduction on didgeridoo
to the title track, a world music experiment that morphs
into a very funky track with some fine keyboard work from
T.W. Sample. What’s so great about this CD is that
the music goes from style to style seemingly organically.
There’s never a sense that the musicians thought “Oh,
let’s get some Caribbean influence in right here!
Let’s play some funk now. OK, now we’re playing
straight-ahead.” Like the music of one of Harper’s
influences, Cannonball Adderley, the music flows because
Harper is focused on making the music sound good to the
listener. But in doing so, he never has to lower his musical
standards; instead he allows the musicians he’s picked
to interact and create a unique sound.
Other particularly interesting tracks include
the Carribean-tinged version of Ray Bryant’s bluesy
“Reflection,” the winding exotica of Harper’s
composition “Divine Surveillance,” the drum
and percussion solo “BandBangBoomBoomBapBap,”
and the final number, the African percussion ensemble tour
de force “The Prayer.”
While Harper’s sextet grows ever more
interesting, he continues to maintain a heavy schedule as
a side man to musicians such as Joe Lovano, Ray Bryant,
Wycliffe Gordon, and Jimmy Heath. That ensures that Winard
Harper will continue to absorb interesting ideas from a
variety of musical influences, and he will find ways to
utilize these ideas on future recordings, I am certain.
For now, get your hands on a copy of Make It Happen,
and you’ll be able to say you were in on one of the
year’s best releases way back in July.
