For devout followers of the art form, once in while you get witness that rare combination of live jazz where brilliance and experience mix with the intangibles, where a band is clicking on all cylinders. This past Saturday, Mateo's Magic Bus was parked in Dazzle Jazz Club Denver where Erik Deutsch had assembled a brilliant lineup to help kick off his new album, La Nuit Blanche. To the appreciative Colorado audience, where he called home for so many years, their recognition of the special evening added to the energy of the band.
Accompanying Erik in the quintet, all composers and band leaders in their own right, were Dominick Lalli on sax, Shane Endsley on trumpet, with Hunter Roberts on bass and special guest Rudy Royston on drums filling out the rhythm section. They opened the set with Art Pepper's Red Car and finished with Horace Silver's In Pursuit of the 27th Man, with La Nuit Blanche played end to end in between. A perfect set, as Erik crafted the album to fit on vinyl with a running time of roughly 40 mins, which we had discussed on our interview on KFFR-FM some weeks back. One other note we learned after the show, Erik had met Rudy through the great Ron Miles, which added even more meaning with Ron's recent passing.
To help set the mood a bit more, here's an excerpt from a recent amazing article in Boulder Weekly on Erik and the new album: "Followers of Deutsch’s solo work will note immediately that
restlessness—part McCoy Tyner, hints of Horace Silver’s playful melodicism, maybe even Brubeck at his most literal) and scant synth or electronic garnish around the edges. A series of melodic statements, sympathetically adorned by Mike McGinnis and Bryan Drye’s horns, a noted reticence from fireworks.
The drowsy, blues-shaded “Martha” and the title track set a relaxed, almost reflective palette, and even when Deutsch calls the band to attention on a couple of more upbeat numbers (“Lockdown,” with its percussive Latin underpinning, and “Fantasma”), the emphasis leans more toward swing and less on kinetics. It all sounds, perhaps inartfully described, as a “club album,” as opposed to a “studio album.” The thing coaxes and breathes. A chops clinic, this is not." Click here for the rest of the story.
As always, we brought our extensive MMB film crew to the show & managed to capture a collage of different movements that we believe is a good mix of the mood, energy and incredible 5 virtuosos playing their hearts out that night. The video posted here is a bit more long form, so is Jazz and so are the good things in life, buckle up, enjoy and hoping it gives you a sense of the special evening. We look forward to much more with Erik, as evidenced by the amazing La Nuit Blanche (his 8th album) and his now global reputation as both a front man as well as a side man to some of the biggest names in music.
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