Jazz, Period. - "Snowball" w/ Kevin Dean, Al McLean, Mike Rud

Recorded at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, December 18, 2010

"Snowball"
Composed by Al McLean

Al McLean - Saxophone
Kevin Dean - Trumpet
Mike Rud - Guitar

This fun original by Al McLean features the saxophonist on a rare C soprano saxophone dating to 1916. Trumpeter Kevin Dean and Al McLean are beautifully balanced on the session. Dean, a founding faculty member of the Schulich School of Music's Jazz program at McGill University, is known for his 'straight-down-the-barrel' Hard Bop aesthetic, and a refined, traditional delivery. Nuance and chops are deftly packaged into a compact and purposeful oeuvre; Bebop at its highest level. We hear echos of Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown when Kevin plays, but he remains vibrant and relevant, setting himself apart, and painting a unique musical picture with his palette of traditional colors.

McLean, on the other hand, is harder to both define, and to contain, with an ever-overflowing exuberance of style and technique. Al McLean wears a contemporary 'coat of many colors' as he easily adapts to different instruments and styles with an earnest joie-de- vivre. This is not mere sampling or referencing, which is what we have come to expect from young artists, rather, a primordial summoning of the spirit - of the rare Leblanc Rationale in his hands, of Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderly... Al McLean is able to sleekly conform to the style at hand, not loosing his voice, but drawing on different parts of it.

This intrinsic understanding of a deeply curious artist makes McLean believable, and his musical storytelling plausible.

Together, the musicians arrive at a useful creative tension, a balance of two opposing, but complimentary forces. Comfort-be-damned, this performance breathes and shimmers.

Both musicians are playing on vintage horns that are not their own, adding an element of instability, and historical context: McLean on a 1916 H.N. White King C soprano, and Dean on a 1949 Besson Paris Brevette trumpet.

Al McLean can be heard regularly in Montreal's Jazz venues, and is a sought after saxophone repair man. Read more about Al McLean here:
http://www.almclean.com/about.html

Kevin Dean is professor, and a founding faculty member of the Jazz Department at McGill University's Schulich School of Music (http://www.mcgill.ca/music/).

More on Kevin Dean:
http://kevindeanmusic.com/
http://people.mcgill.ca/kevin.dean/

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Kevin Dean
• Al McLean
• Mike Rud
• Art Blakey
• Cannonball Adderly
• Paul Desmond
• Lee Konitz
• Charlie Parker
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Morgan
• Jim Hall
• Jazz
• Segal Centre

[dannyinternetz]

I wish there was a "love" button.

[zezinhoicm]

great soprano sound!

[jazzforJamie]

So Good playing and those old instrument`s, Great!

[micodoso]

Messieurs, à quand le c.d? Ça me prend cela dans ma voiture, dans mon milieu de travail, à la maison, à la patinoire et au pub du village!!! Mico