Vincent Herring American Experience
PERSONNEL:
Tracks1,2,4,5,6,9, 10
Vincent Herring (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone)
Dave Douglas (trumpet)
Bruce Barth (piano)
James Genus (bass)
Mark Johnson (drums)
Engineering: James Nichols
Recorded at RCA Studios, New York, October 12, 1989
Tracks 3, 7, 8
Vincent Herring (alto saxophone)
Tex Allen (trumpet)
Clifford Adams (trombone)
John Hicks (piano)
Marcus Mclauren (bass)
Beaver Harris ( drums)
Engineering: Rick Rowe
Recorded at RCA Studios1 New York, April 17, 1986
September 1988: it's after-hours at the Chicago Jazz Festival. As usual, out-of-town players have assembled at the Jazz Showcase for an organized jam. One night, no less than a dozen saxophonists hit the bandstand. Each sits in for a tune or two, blows a few choruses, and then makes way for the next. They're good -- but in a festival week crammed with fine performances, none of these jousters really grabs the ear. Not until this alto player gets up. From his opening chorus, he's blowing so much saxophone that conversations stop. In one corner of the room, visiting critics start turning to each other to ask, "Where'd he come from?"
"New York," a scribe from back east says, grinning like he's going to share a secret. "That's Vincent Herring."
A new name to you, too? Not for long. Even then, Herring was getting around; in fact, he's already recorded three of the tunes on this album. In the late 1980s, Herring worked with, among others, Horace Silver, Nat Adderley, Cedar Walton, Larry Coryell, Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, Beaver Harris's 360 Degree Music Experience, and the big bands of Lionel Hampton and David Murray. That list suggests his range: he can dissect chord progressions like a surgeon and wail with high energy. In Paris in 1988, he appeared in fast company at an Alto Summit that
included Jackie McLean (a Herring fan), Phil Woods, Frank Morgan, Bob Mover, and C Sharps. As of this writing, he's on upcoming albums by Adderley, John Stubblefield, Donald Brown and Carl Allen. And he's attracted the kind of adjectives ("searing," "blazing," "incendiary") that more often apply to fouralarm fires than to saxophone players.
If you follow the music's legends -- the jazz tradition is long on dramatic anecdotes -- that Chicago story a few paragraphs back might remind you of Cannonball Adderley's headturning debut at a New York jam session in 1955, which is not to imply that Vincent immediately went on to storm the jazz world as Cannonball did. Still, the comparison is fitting: Vincent Herring has high regard for Adderley and a shelf full of Cannonball records at home in Brooklyn. (Nat Adderley told journalist Gene Kalbacher about the first time he met his future altoist: "Vincent walked up to me on the bandstand and said, 'Man, Cannonball is my favorite saxophone player, and I know all the tunes.' After I got through being skeptical, I let him play. And he was right.")
But veneration for the masters hasn't misled Vincent into thinking that proficiency alone is a substitute for an individual sound. After all, the masters didn't get to be masters by regurgitating the styles of players they' d admired. They listened, appropriated a little of
this or that, and put in something of their own. (As Nat pointedly added to Kalbacher, "He does not copy Cannon's solos.")
"I study my ABCs," Vincent Herring says, "Adderley, Bird and Coltrane. My influences aren't just alto saxophonists -- they' re trumpet players and pianists, too." He starts to name some, but he gives it up as the list stretches longer and longer. It's enough to say he listens hard and widely. Like Cannon, he conveys some of the excitement folks must have experienced hearing Charlie Parker when he first hit the scene. (And, like both, he has gladiatorial instincts.) Coltrane played tenor and soprano; Herring plays alto and soprano. Oddly, there's a stronger trace of Coltrane on Vincent's alto -- listen to his hoarse split tones on "Almost Like the First," his whipsaw lines on "Metropolis Blues" - than on his calm, liquid soprano heard on "Anne's Mood.''
Some observers have noted with regret the tack of a shared repertoire among younger musicians -- a reluctance to play other writers' tunes. Herring's an exception. "I always get musicians to lay their compositions on me -I've got a whole stack of them. I like to check out different stuff; you can learn from it." Besides Vincent himself, composers on this disc includes Charles Lloyd (whose "Sweet Georgia Bright, " Monk-flavored in this
arrangement, comes from an old Cannonball live album), friends Tex Allen and John Stubblefield, and sidefolk Rodney Jones and Bruce Barth.
The smorgasbord of writers pays off in the varied material. Most of the tunes are boporiented burners, suitably enough. (Vincent's not a big quoter but kicks off the album's first solo with a subtle note to "The Song is You.")
For variety, he turns tender on Stubblefield's lovely "You Know My Eyes," and lingers in the background on Horace Silver's "Peace" (sung by Monte Croft), which takes the album out on a very different mood from which it began. Herring shows he's not a one-trick pony.
About the musicians: Trumpeter Dave Douglas shared the front line with Vincent in Horace Silver's quintet: his first hot sound mirrors the leader's Pianist Bruce Barth is a Nat Adderley vet and has recorded with George Russell and with the Bostonbased orchestra Orange Then Blue. Bassist James Genus has worked with Roy Haynes, the Harper Brothers, and New York Voices; Mark Johnson, who frequently collaborates with Herring, drums on several Steve Coleman and Cassandra Wilson albums. Like Vincent, he served part of his apprenticeship in New York street bands. (It was on the street that producer Leroy Parkins discovered the altoist.)
Three tracks with a different sextet were recorded in 1986. From them, it's clear that Vincent's conception had already formed -young players often develop their ballad skills last, but his playing on Stubblefield's tune is remarkably mature for a 21-year-old. (For the record, Vincent was born on November 19, 1964.) Which is not to say that he isn't still maturing -- only that he's smart enough to remain true to himself. After all, that's how he began catching people's ears in the first place.
-Kevin Whitehead
It was July 1984, I was playing with my own band on the streets of Manhattan, to the rushhour crowds. That's where and when I met Sam Parkins. He offered me the opportunity to
make my own record. His special vision has helped me see my way through a maze of career moves. He has anchored my confidence when things would blur. He's an artist, a sage, a wit and a friend.
Special thanks also to: The National Endowment for the Arts, Jackie McLean, Art Taylor, Pete Yellin, Anne Schelle, Taana Running, Wendy Cunningham, Nat and Ann Adderley, Frank and Delores Herring, Mitchell and Randy Kornblatt. The support of all of the above has been intrinsic to my growth and development.
-Vincent Herring
