Main Menu · Search ·Current Issue ·Contact ·Archives ·Centennial ·Letters to the Editor ·FAQs

The Manly Ideal	Films: Down Off the Farm
Music: Jazz with Ivy League Manners	Chapter & Verse
Off the Shelf	Open Book: Friends of France

---

Don Braden. Photograph by Kris Snibbe

How many harvard alumni play jazz at a world-class level? Judging from recent recordings by Don Braden '85 and Jonny King, J.D. '91, the latter featuring Joshua Redman '91, the preliminary answer is: at least three.

Don Braden's Organic is the more accessible of the two recordings; you can probably play most of these tracks as background music when the in-laws are over for brunch. Braden, a saxophonist who was a computer science concentrator at Harvard, has been a sideman for jazz luminaries Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Betty Carter, and Wynton Marsalis, and has also self-produced several albums on the Dutch Criss Cross label.

On Organic, he successfully travels with his saxophone to the land of good-time organ/tenor jazz. Both organists ("Captain" Jack McDuff and Larry Goldings) are masters of the difficult art of playing swinging bass lines with their feet on the Hammond organ pedals while simultaneously accompanying Braden or soloing with both hands on the organ keyboard. Braden's tenor sound is clean, full, and sometimes even pretty. Yet it has elements of grit and emotional depth that take him well beyond bubblegum jazz to a realm that could be called funk with Ivy League manners.

Braden's repertoire ranges from understated versions of jazz standards like "Moonglow" and "It Might As Well Be Spring" to original compositions in the straight-ahead genre. There's also a swing rearrangement and reharmonization of "Saving All My Love for You" that is so hot it makes it difficult to recall the rhythmic feel of the original Whitney Houston track (or to see why that would matter).

---

Jonny King. Photograph by Jane Reed

Jonny King's Notes from the Underground is probably only for in-laws who show up sporting T-shirts that read, "live at the blue note." First, the title is so perfect for a jazz recording that I am kicking myself for not having thought of it when I was putting out my own jazz albums. But what makes this a great CD is that King can play piano! His style is mature and multidimensional, incorporating influences from Bill Evans to McCoy Tyner to Claude Debussy. King must have discovered early in life the full ramifications of the fact that the piano is a percussion instrument, since his touch and attack on the keys are a marvel of precision, variation, and sensuality-all this from a musician# who is primarily self-taught. He currently works for a New York law firm that allows him enough flexibility to pursue his jazz ambitions.

King's compositions (featured on six of the eight tracks) are first-rate, serious jazz works. Yet some are as catchy as good pop tunes. Particularly intriguing are "Gnosis," with its complex melody, and "Las Ramblas," a new calypso-accented entry in the half-century-old tradition of writing jazz compositions using the chord changes of "I've Got Rhythm."

Joshua Redman. Photograph by Jane Reed

King has one previous album (as a bandleader) to his credit, but his primary playing credential is as a sideman with saxophonist Joshua Redman '91, a rising star whose father played with Ornette Coleman. Happily, King chose Redman as his saxophonist here, and Redman shows exactly why he has risen so high so quickly. He plays with warmth, sincerity, and an openness of heart; he's willing to show tenderness in the midst of heavy improvisation, or to work in a melodic line from an old standard. On two tracks (once on soprano sax, once on tenor) he quotes from the beginning of Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" and fits it so seamlessly into his solo that one really can't tell if the quote is conscious, unconscious, or merely coincidental.

In short, Notes from the Underground is a true find-for postbop jazz aficionados, for serious nonjazz music lovers seeking adventure, or for those who are merely thirsting for proof that anyone who passed torts at Harvard Law School can actually play piano that well.

---

Saxophonist John Payne '67 has played and recorded with Bonnie Raitt '72, Van Morrison, and his own jazz groups. He directs and teaches at the John Payne Music Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, and performs in the Boston area.

---

Main Menu · Search ·Current Issue ·Contact ·Archives ·Centennial ·Letters to the Editor ·FAQs