Word: sax
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There was jazz in Carnegie Hall: Sonny Rollins, one of the alltime great tenor saxophonists, was sparking fire off the bluesy beat of his quintet. Bending low over his sax, Rollins, 48, would pause for a fraction of a second and then come up swinging: weaving countermelodies inside and outside the harmonies, loosing flying clusters of arpeggios that left his sax all but smoking, ending with a comic bebop flourish, head thrown back and sax brandished triumphantly...
...Carter, 48, half crooned, half spoke, swaying to the beat of her trio with eyes closed. Throttling down to slow, slow low notes that seemed to float in the air forever-the crowd hanging on breathlessly-she would suddenly take off, sliding up the scale as fast as any sax to land on a sultry, slightly off-center note. With consummate skill, she flecked moody ballads with flirtatious spoken asides and highly rhythmic scat passages: "Do-be-do-be-bop." She never missed a beat, or a wave of applause...
...quite as soulful a gathering as in the old days, when the festival was held in Newport, R.I.-out in the fields, where a wailing sax could carry a mile...
Cooder is assisted throughout by contributions of some exemplary sidemen, ranging from the alto sax of Harvey Pittel and the impeccable piano of Earl Hines to the mellow, foursquare harmonies of Bill Johnson, once lead singer of the Golden Gate Quartet, perhaps the greatest of all gospel groups. Cooder was going for what he calls "the power, the fleetness" of the old music. He got it fine. Listening to Jazz is a sensual, tonic experience in collective musical memory, a little like having a long closed door in your house blown open by a cool, gentle summer wind...
...title cut comes next, backboned by an acoustic bass line that reverberates with classical elegance and never stops through this rambling, lyrical, apocalyptic 11-minute street poem. "Street Hassle" is divided into three movements, each with the same bass line, intermittently using piano, sax, electric bass and quixotic female background vocals to supplement the poetics of Lou Reed. "Street Hassle" is an honest expression of life in the city street--a confusing apocalypse of frightening anonymity and frustration...