(Live at Trinity Church 10/8/2023 L-R Luis Perdomo, Ugonna Okegwo, Tom Harrell, Adam Cruz)
It’s always a pleasure to see Tom Harrell live. With Harrell, that pleasure is not necessarily from the fire or virtuosity of the music, necessary ingredients for some other musicians. Harrell is now age 77, and while he’s always had plenty of chops on both trumpet and flugelhorn, his age and long-term health problems are a challenge, especially given the difficulty of playing trumpet well. But chops have never been the center of Harrell’s aesthetic anyway. Instead, he eschews pyrotechnics that are other horn player’s bread and butter for something much more profound – the ability to improvise melodically and to tell a story with music alone. Harrell has a deep and humble melodicism that is the rarest gift in music, a gift that fills Harrell’s fans and fellow musicians with reverence for what he can do with a simple phrase. This gig, presented at New York City Trinity Church on October 8th as part of the “Jazz Icons” series, was a great place to catch up with Harrell. The concert was free and open to the public, and where better to experience beauty than in a church? Trinity Church was packed with an appreciative house for an hour and twenty minutes of beautiful music in a wondrous setting.
After remarks from the church’s music director, Harrell and his regular working quartet assembled in front of the nave under soaring arches and stained glass, ready to play. But before we get to the music, let’s talk about Harrell’s excellent band! Bassist Ugonna Okegwo anchors the group and has been with Harrell for 25 years. Okegwo’s deep sound and swinging time are the band’s glue. Drummer Adam Cruz has played with Harrell for almost as long as Okegwo, from 2014’s Trip onward. In the spacious soundstage of the church, Cruz’s drums were both dynamic and detailed, and he made the band sound alive. Pianist Luis Perdomo is a more recent associate to Harrell, yet he fit into this group like a glove. Perdomo’s comping under Harrell’s lines and his solos were poised, relaxed, and beautiful. This band showed they are flexible, played with immense intuition, and each member of the rhythm section gave terrific solos.
The show started with a Tom Harrell original, “Sun Up,” which features a stuttering rhythm and the bright, cheery melody the name suggests. Live, Harrell and his band slowed the tempo, allowing Harrell to develop a relaxed two-chorus solo. Harrell’s tone was beautifully transparent, and his ideas flowed gracefully from one phrase to the next. The leisurely tempo for the opener was a good choice because, unfortunately, Harrell had difficulty with the faster tunes of the set. Although Harrell played several solos that were beautiful gems (like on the arabesque original “Delta of the Sea,” where he played with a convincing bite, or the labyrinthine “Sea,” where he played a tender solo over a gentle rubato feel from the rhythm), he seemed to be having what I guess were embouchure problems. On the faster standards the group played, such as “There Will Never Be Another You,” you could hear Harrell’s difficulty with the head of the tune and his solo. That performance was still fine and quite beautiful, but Harrell’s chops really gave him trouble with the changes on Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice.” Here, Harrell had to give up playing at the top of the third chorus of his solo, leaving the band to “hold the music in place” for the next half chorus until Cruz could conclude the tune with a commanding drum solo. At moments, you could feel the band trying to carry their leader.
The gaffe on “Moment’s Notice” might have defeated other players. But the next tune was an astounding moment of grace and resiliency. Drummer Cruz and bassist Okegwo left the stage, and Harrell played a duet with Perdomo on a tune I’d never heard before, “Journey to the Stars,” which Harrell recorded on 2012’s Number Five. After a hypnotic piano intro, Harrell played some of the most transcendent, luminous trumpet I’ve ever heard. It was a dramatic moment; Harrell was bent over, his trumpet facing straight down to the floor, while he conjured phrases that seemed to soar to the church’s vault above. The beauty and power of this performance had me in tears, and it ended with screams and cheers from the audience as Perdomo clasped his hands in respect towards his duet partner. “Journey to the Stars” was a total triumph, made even more breathtaking after the trouble that Harrell had been having executing the music only minutes before. The band then rode out the afternoon of music with the breezy “Keep On Goin” from 2016’s Something Gold, Something Blue. The whole band sounded fine again, and the performance left the crowd happy after a fascinating and moving afternoon of music.
Seeing Tom Harrell reminded me of the remarkable honesty and courage of his playing. He’s at an age where many trumpet players think about retiring due to the demands of the trumpet. Instead, Harrell has pared down his working group to a quartet without another horn to carry the weight, and has focused more and more on the trumpet rather than the easier-to-play flugelhorn (which he left at home for this gig). What’s more, he does not play rehearsed “licks” or repeat himself – live, you could see and hear him creating melodic lines in the moment, always with the risk of running out of ideas or playing bad notes. Those imperfections are part of what makes Harrell’s playing so moving – even in the face of challenges from age and his health, he embodies what is best about jazz – playing music that’s real, that embodies experience and life, and is centered on beautiful expression that comes straight from the heart (and the brain too). See him when you have the chance.