Chase's Reviews
Down Beat's Review of Chase's first album.
June 24, 1971
CHASE-Epic E 30472: Open Up Wide; Livin' In Heat; Hello Groceries; Handbags and Gladrags; Get It On; Boys and Girls Together; Invitation to a River (Two Minds Meet; Stay; Paint It Sad; Reflections; River).
Rating: ****
If you like trumpets-and I'm an old trumpet freak-Chase will give you good kicks. The group rightfully takes its name from leader-lead trumpeter-arranger Bill Chase, well remembered for his work with Woody Herman (big band and small group) and man equipped with a set of chops entitling him to air rights in that zone of the stratosphere inhabited by Cat Anderson, Maynard Ferguson, and a very few others.
Leading a trumpet section is Chase's natrual habitat, and the one he has gathered here is first rate. In full cry, it rivals the best ever assembled, in or out of studios. The trumpets give the band its own special character and color, and their energy output, range, bite and precision are something else.
For this aspect, the album can be enjoyed by all. If you are a jazz purist, be forewarned that this is a rock-jazz band-in that order of priorities.
But these are hard times for purists, and even at its rockiest, the music is not to far removed from that of Rich and Herman, contemporary sytle. And those who like Maynard's high stuff will not be disappointed by Chase's.
The singing of course, is for this reviewer, and , he would guess, for many of his own orientation-an acquired taste. Terry Richards, who is featured, is at his best on Paint It Sad and not hard to take at any time, and Van Blair and Piercefield, who also sing solo, are pleasant and musical. None of them quite make it when trying to sound black, but I guess, though it can be done so much more convincingly with emphasis on feeling rather than sound. (This a general comment; these particular singers are lesser sinners than most.)
Perhaps it is this orientation that causes me to pick Open Up Wide, the album's only instrumental, as my favorite track. But I prefer to think I like it because it has the most jazz content and feeling, Chase's kickiest solo, and a good outing by Porter, a gifted organist I recall from a Howard McGhee album and in person at Birdland, and from whom I would like to hear more featrued work, though he is a fine accompanist, too.
This piece is by Chase, and he is also responsible for the music to Invitation to a River, a "suite" of the type popular in post-Sgt. Pepper-BS&T rock. The story line-doomed love affair-is a bit melodramatic, and so, at times, is the music, but there are substantial ideas at work here. The opening, Two Minds Meet, gets to swing and has fine scoring touches. There are a variety of moods, and the ad lib Reflections is a tour de force for the leader, involving tape-and-chop wizardry and a gigantic climax bringing in the whole band. The canonic stuff on Stay sounds for all the world like a segment from some Kentonian opus, but is immediately followed by a groovy Fender bass interlude and guitarist South's tasteful use of electronic devices.
The rhythm moves along throughout, and there isn't a weak link in the group. Use of multi-tracking and such is kept to a minimum(and effective when used), so one gets the impression that this band can say what it says on record as well(and probably better even better) in person. (Spies tell me that Van Blair is a fine jazz soloist for one thing.)
This is a very well done first album by a group that certainly should make it, if excitement combined with musciality and expert craftmanship are qualities that appeal to current audiences. And it's a must-hear for students of the trumpet-graduates included.
-Morgenstern
Down Beat's Review of Chase's Pure Music album.
Chase-
Pure Music
***
My feeling about Chase is that it has always been a band with a tendency to stress ball-busting technical perfection at the expense of musical values, and this album gives me little reason to revise my opinion. There's quite a bit of musical shock value here, but I'd like to have seen less tension and more repose.
Some of the tunes, granted, come off rather well. Weird Song, for example, is done in a funky 9/8 , and in addition to offering crisp, driving brass passages, features Yohn's synthesizer in a melodic unison with the brass. His synthesizer is programmed to produce wildly oscillating spirals of sound, and they nicely complement Bill Chases's own electric trumpet work. A refreshing contrast from some of the fury on this album comes from Twinkles, a gently lyrical piece which features a sensitive fluegelhorn solo by Chase and an interesting, delicate bass guitar solo by Dartanyan Brown, one of the few electric bass players I know of who is exploring the lyrical qualities of his ax.
Jim Peterik, a former member of the now defunct Ides of March (Vehicle), has contributed two tunes to this album, one of which (Come Back to Mama) should get an award as the most blatantly sexist tune of the year: "You say I treat you like a child that's misbehaving/If you can't take it girl, you'd best be on your way."
Threre's so much sound and fury here, but I suspect it adds up to an album best appreciated only by brass fanciers.
-Balleras