Andy Scherrer Quartet: «Second Step» (TCB)

Mike Hennesy

The fact that scarcely any jazz dictionaries contain the name of Andy Scherrer is testimony to the inherent deficiencies of these reference works and emphatically not a realistic measure of Scherrer’s status as a jazz musician. Because you will certainly find mentions of many far less gifted saxophone players in those weighty volumes.

I would hazard a guess that if Scherrer had been born in Greenwich Village instead of Glarus, Switzerland, he would be much more widely recognised as a highly accomplished saxophonist and composer.

However, it must also be said that another factor militating against Sherrer’s achieving greater renown is his own innate modesty. There could be no better illustration of Andy’s unassuming, diffident nature than the fact that, in a professional career spanning 30 years, this is his very first album as leader.
Yet he has won extremely high praise from the musicians he has worked with over the years – and they include Dexter Gordon, Harry Edison, Wild Bill Davis, Kenny Clarke, Benny Bailey, Woody Shaw, Curtis Fuller, Slide Hampton, Idrees Sulieman, Gary Burton, Cedar Walton, Horace Parlan, Kirk Lightsey and Kenny Barron. And he has been a star soloist with the Vienna Art Orchestra since 1991. For many years, Andy has been professor for saxophone studies in the jazz department of the Hochschule for music and theatre in Berne, Switzerland.

A severe critic of his own work, Scherrer says his overriding ambition is to play better, and he adds: “You never finish learning – otherwise you might as well stop playing.”

Andy studied violin from the age of seven and switched to tenor saxophone at 15. It was Andy’s father, an amateur classical pianist, who introduced him to jazz. One of his first idols was Wardell Gray and later he was inspired by John Coltrane. “But,” says Andy, “the two saxophonists – post-Coltrane – for whom I have the most admiration are Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson because they are real individualists who developed their own styles on the tenor.

Scherrer could scarcely have chosen a more compatible rhythm section for his début album as leader. He says: “I have worked with these musicians many times before and I knew that I could count on them to give me their total support.”

William E. Evans, from Detroit, Michigan, is an inventive and versatile pianist whose musical associates have included Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaria, Eddie Harris, Jimmy Witherspoon, Nat Adderley, Sam Rivers, Lou Donaldson and Tony Lakatos.

He began formal training at the age of seven and continued private study throughout his high school years. He gained his early experience playing in churches and working with bands in the metropolitan Detroit area. He has since built a solid reputation as an accompanist and soloist in a variety of musical contexts but with a strong emphasis on jazz. Professor of piano studies in the jazz department of the Hochschule for music and theatre in Berne, Evans spends half the year in Switzerland and half in the United States.

Isla Eckinger, who was born in Dornach, near Basel, on May 6, 1939, is acknowledged as one of the most gifted and experienced bassists to come out of Europe. He is also an imaginative composer. He started out on cello at the age of eight and continued on the instrument for the next six years. At 17 he began studying trombone at the Basel Music Academy, then, three years later, started teaching himself double bass, which eventually became his principal instrument. Later he added vibraphone to his musical armoury and developed into an extremely adept player, very much in the Hampton mould.
His association with Scherrer goes back to 1980 when they got together in a group called Hot Mallets, in which Eckinger doubled on trombone and vibraphone.

Eckinger has made more than 70 albums in the course of his career and has worked with a host of major jazz musicians, including Kenny Clarke, Chet Baker, Buddy DeFranco, Zoot Sims, Dizzy Gillespie, Stéphane Grappelli, Dexter Gordon, Warne Marsh, Johnny Griffin, Lucky Thompson, Clark Terry and Ben Webster.

Drummer Dré Pallemaerts, from Leuven in Belgium, was born on July 14, 1964 and made an early start in music – he had his first drum set by the age of five and got interested in jazz at the age of 14. He studied with Jeff Hamilton in Los Angeles and later had a spell in Seattle where he played with Art Farmer, James Williams and Ernestine Anderson. During a year’s residence in New York, he worked with Judy Niemack, Fred Hersch and Dave Kikosky. In the 1980s he played with the trio of Dutch pianist Jack van Poll and accompanied such artists as Dee Daniels, Etta Cameron, Arnett Cobb and Dave Pike. His other notable musical associates have included Philip Catherine, Bob Brookmeyer, John Scofield, Ack van Rooyen, Toots Thielemans, Lee Konitz, Mal Waldron, Steve Grossman, Kenny Werner and Michel Herr. In recent years he has worked as a sound engineer and on electronic music projects.

The first two tracks of the album feature originals by Scherrer. Tuberiferous is a pretty improbable title for a jazz theme. (Useless information note: The word actually describes a plant which has a short, thick underground stem covered with modified buds, such as a potato or artichoke). Andy says he was thinking more of jazz roots when he named the piece.

This is a 64-bar AABA modal composition taken at a nice loping tempo. Evans plays an eight-bar intro and then Scherrer states the theme against a broken rhythmic background. The B section of the tune is enlivened by an effective 12/8 rhythm. Scherrer’s sound has a good cutting edge to it and he explores the full range of the instrument, particularly in the out chorus, when he plays with tremendous fire and passion and the rhythmic pulse of the A section goes into a hard-driving four-in-the-bar. Evans’s accompanying and solo work here is of the highest order and he makes subtle use of dynamics.

Second Step is another modal piece, this time at a brisk tempo, which is principally a feature for Dré Pallemaerts. After an eight-bar drum intro, the staccato theme is played by tenor, piano and bass with drum breaks in between.

Then Scherrer takes off on a waspish, wailing solo, stimulated by the tremendously supportive rhythm section. Evans follows with some dextrous single-note work, punctuated by spare left-hand accents. Then, after a high-energy work-out by Pallemaerts, the theme is reprised.

The Songman is an original by bassist Stephan Kurmann, which was also featured on the TCB album Cojazz Plus, Volume 2, with Scherrer on piano. The tune, also of modal construction, has three distinct sections and was written by Kurmann during a visit to Australia. It was inspired by an Aborigine dijeridu player. Scherrer plays a rubato opening, with strong echoes of Coltrane, backed by piano chords and arpeggios and busy drums. In a tempestuous build-up, the tenor becomes increasingly frantic and anguished and Scherrer produces a wide range of sounds, including some trumpet-like notes.

Then comes a change of mood as Scherrer goes into ballad mode, backed by piano arpeggios and bowed bass. The third section of the tune is in samba rhythm, with an emphatic, straight-ahead solo by Scherrer and some sparkling keyboard work from Evans. The piece continues with Scherrer improvising boisterously against a sequence of alternating four-bar passages on the chords of B major and A flat. Then it is back to the slow tempo before the samba rhythm is resumed with Scherrer taking the tune up to a fade-out ending.

Scherrer’s impressive capabilities as a ballad player are fully in evidence on the immortal Hoagy Carmichael standard, Stardust, which he takes at a pleasantly lazy tempo, bringing out the full poignancy of the song and receiving sensitive backing from the rhythm section. There is a tasteful, thoughtful half-chorus by Evans, who mixes rich chords with elegant single note lines. Isla Eckinger follows with a well-conceived half- chorus, sneaking in an appropriately heavenly quote from Lionel Hampton’s Midnight Sun and then, towards the end, a couple of bars from Charlie Parker’s Bluebird. Then Scherrer picks it up again for half a chorus, against double time from the rhythm section, reverting to the melody for the second half.

Habiba, yet another modal piece, was written by Kirk Lightsey. Says Andy, “I played it with him five years ago and enjoyed it very much. It is a challenge, it is hard to play – and that’s why I like it.” It opens with a two- bar vamp setting the lively tempo and then Scherrer improvises freely before the tune goes into regular time, first a Latin rhythm and then a vigorous four-four. There follows another vamp section, and then it is back into straight time. Once again the group demonstrates its great cohesion and there are enterprising solos from Scherrer, Evans and Pallemaerts.

The programme concludes with two Eckinger originals. If I Could Fly is a pretty ballad in three-four time which opens with a delightfully mellow solo by Evans. Scherrer then enters, playing spare lines with great feeling and often recalling the famous Coltrane “cry” effect which was a feature of the Ballads album of the early 1960s. Eckinger plays a moving, well-conceived solo and Evans follows, his lyrical contribution and delicate touch often reminiscent of his namesake.

Blues East is a lively 24-bar minor blues of which Scherrer says, “Isla and I have been playing this number for quite some time now. I like it because it has a kind of eastern flavour and is even a bit Monkish.” It has powerful solos by Scherrer, Evans and Eckinger and it provides a grandstand finish to what is unquestionably an outstanding album.

Note to Andy: There’s no way I am going to wait 30 years for the next one.