Chip White: Press

(From the Spotlight section of Hot House)

CHIP WHITE
BAHA'I CENTER/MARCH 27
In addition to drummer White's sextet, you'll likely hear singer Gail Allen do a song or two. Ask Chip for a copy of his self-produced Music and Lyrics CD, which features Allen plus tenor saxist Houston Person on eight [of] White's songs, ranging from blues and bossa to shapely romantic ballads. White's also a songwriter with a fine ear for melody and lyrics. In addition to this Baha'i Center gig, he'll also be part of the rhythm section backing Person for two nights (March 16-17) at Trumpets - and join pianist Sayuri Goto's quintet on March 31 at the Hell's Kitchen event cited in our Hot Flashes section. GK

(Excerpts from review of Music and Lyrics)

Chip White is a composer who has a good sense of melody. The instrumentals on this CD are strikingly beautiful. “Blues for Cousin Alice” is melodic with easily repeatable catchy phrasing and lilts along at a moderate tempo. The next tune is quite pleasurable to the ear. Like the first original composition, “The Luckiest Girl” has a good strong melody. . . . Vocalist Allen displays shades of Jazz chanteuse, Dakota Staton, with her similar tone and vocal style. Allen’s voice seems appropriately fitted to singing Chip White’s lovely melodies. White is a drummer who has performed or recorded with such diverse artists as Carmen McCrae, Irene Reid, John Abercrombie, John Faddis, Junior Cook, Mulgrew Miller, Gary Bartz, and John Hicks to list a few. The liner notes certainly sing his impressive credentials. . . .“Time Stood Still” showcases the magic tenor saxophone distinction of Houston Person. He certainly makes time stand still on this song, while adding color and beauty. In fact, all the musicians on this session are more than competent. Pianist, Lafayette Harris, makes each composition a work of art. His performance on “The Contessa” is breathtakingly beautiful! Harris has a simple, understated way of playing with harmonics, using just enough improvisation to support White’s original melodies. “I Never Knew” could easily become a standard instrumental tune. . . .There is a sensitivity in his arrangements and a beauty to his melodies that intoxicates the ear. He also exhibits the attitude of a seasoned veteran behind his drum set. On every number, White locks in with bassist, George Kaye. Together they create a strong foundation for a well performed CD.

New Review of Harlem Sunset

All About Jazz Publisher's Pick

Chip White has a hell of a band here, but the fact that he provided it with almost an entire programme of stimulating material is what makes this a disc worth frequently returning to. Additionally, the quartet of White, Gary Bartz, Steve Nelson and Buster Williams offers such a captivating reading of “I Want To Talk About You” that the overall effect is one of enduring pleasure, and that's only enhanced by the presence of Claudio Roditi's “We (To Kristen And Me)”; those are the only two tracks not composed by White.

There's been much discussion over the years regarding the benefits or otherwise of digital recording. Here there is clarity and depth of a rare order. Every musician is caught in what might be called his natural musical state, and the likes of White's “The Wizard” seems somehow only enhanced by this quality.

It might be more than coincidence that two members of the current incarnation of Dave Holland's quintet are present here, especially when their contributions are so telling. Robin Eubanks has arguably his best outing on “The Wizard,” working well within the comparatively difficult rhythmic makeup of the piece, while Nelson generally does his cause no harm at all as both an economical accompanist and a soloist, especially on “Circle Dance,” where Bartz proves his work on soprano sax is every bit as distinctive as his alto sax playing.

The engine room of White and Buster Williams is both propulsive and complementary. At every turn they nail a groove and provide a propulsive beat, as per their work behind Roditi on “Circle Dance.” Additionally, White's solos have such an organic feel that they complement the flow of the music, rather than impede it.

It's clear from the first minute that this music and this band came together, and the result is almost an hour of stimulating music that avoids all the clichés in making its time-honoured point.

Composer/drummer Chip White and his quartet feature the vocals of Gail Allen on White’s latest, Music and Lyrics. Both elements of the title are supplied by White himself; each tune is an original. White’s tunes are lively and entertaining; his lyrics whimsical at times and poignant at others. He showcases the band and Allen’s vocals in several different assemblages, keeping things fresh and interesting. The material is well written and well performed.

Music and Lyrics begins with “Blues for Cousin Alice,” a medium tempo blues performed by the trio of White, pianist Lafayette Harris, and bassist George Kaye. White plays the head with brushes and stays with them for the bass solo, which is placed first, in an unorthodox manner. After a piano solo during which White switches to sticks, the band trades sixes over the twelve-bar blues form. “The Luckiest Girl” is the first of many beautiful ballads to feature Gail Allen’s vocals, delivered in a fitting and unique manner. Houston Person also joins the band, on tenor sax. Allen also sings “Bossa de Bahia,” a medium/up bossa nova, which begins with a scat solo. Fine tenor and piano solos on this one. “Drums on the Riverside” is a short solo drum composition. It fades in and out on a funky groove, with energetic and technical soloing in between.

The program continues with another ballad, with Allen’s vocals again in the forefront, “Rain.” The tune is set in a very slow tempo and a very laid-back feel. Following this is “October Song,” a bouncy waltz, again with a lyric by White and vocals by Allen. “Club 609” again features vocals, this time in a medium shuffle/swing feel with band hits echoing the vocals. The band is scaled down again to the trio for “The Contessa,” a ballad which serves as a showcase for pianist Lafayette Harris. “28 Drums” is another short drum solo, this time with an Art Blakey Latin tom-tom flavor. Gail Allen delivers another tender ballad with “I Never Knew.” She is backed only by the trio on the light waltz “Circle Dance.” The CD closes with “Time Stood Still,” a ballad-esque funk tune. Person blows a particularly nice solo on this track.

Music and Lyrics is a unique CD with enough twists and turns to hold your interest. There is a light, airy feel to the tunes and the band interprets them appropriately. White is a fine composer as well as a supportive drummer. Allen is a vocalist perfectly matched for White’s light and relaxed compositional style.. The tight rhythm section and the impressive sound of Houston Person at the tenor round out the CD, making it one definitely worth adding to your collection.

As the title hints, the focus of drummer/composer Chip White’s Music and Lyrics is the batch of original songs White came up with for the album. Unlike the standard material that tends to appear on a majority of new jazz vocal albums, White also penned lyrics for eight of the twelve tunes, sung here by Gail Allen. It is indeed refreshing to hear a vocal album featuring new songs, rather than some overworked standards. Of course, that novelty would amount to little if White’s songs were sub par. Luckily, the new songs are musically and lyrically accomplished, very much in the style of the Great American Songbook, with nods to bossa nova.

”Rain” is languorous, with dramatic work from Allen and a fine, delicate piano solo by Lafayette Harris. “October Song” is sprightlier, helped along by a quick, witty rhyme scheme devised by White. As on the other performances, the sense that Allen is not the “star” of the album leads to a fine integration of vocals and instruments. The other musicians are given an equal opportunity to make their own statements. The results are delightfully retro performances that hearken back to the era when singers were simply parts of bands, and not the featured attraction. The songs have a real flow—they do not stop for solos merely so the singer can catch her breath.

Music and Lyrics is a real joy that's admirably eloquent in both music and lyrics, and White and his band mates pull off this ambitious effort with aplomb.

"Making jazz swing in
Seventeen syllables AIN'T
No square poet's job"
-- Etheridge Knight

Chip White, a jazz drummer and composer who will bring his working unit to the Kleinert/James Art Center in Woodstock this Saturday, December 11 [2004], by his very nature provides ample evidence that drummers can be groundbreaking composers. White, who has released a book of poetry dedicated to the history of jazz and its prime practitioners, jokingly titled I'm Just the Drummer in the Band, is among those players and writers who strive for jazz's full-bodied swingingness, its danciness, its range of allusion, its trick bag of quicksilver improvisational impulses.

Aside from touring with Houston Person on a regular basis, White is fronting his own group, which includes bassist Marcus McLaurine -- on loan from Clark Terry's band -- alto sxophonist and flautist Brad Leali, pianist Keith Saunders, and vocalist Gail Allen. According to White, Allen, who will perform for half the gig and sing a number of the drummer's compositions, will remind listeners of an early Sarah Vaughan and the more contemporary Diane Reeves.

Playing with a unique vocal craftsperson is nothing new for him. After all, this is the drummer who occupied that chair with Tom Waits for a few years, and is part of the classic rhythm section that makes Nighthawks at the Diner an absolute masterpiece. That record is really a blend of uber-hipster jazzy spoken word placed over a deeply in-the-pocket swinging groove.

"Hey, Max did it, Tony Williams did it, Blackey did it, Jack DeJohnette does it and Joe Chambers did it." White is referring to the number of drummers who have also penned jazz composititions that are far from a barely concealed excuse for a drum solo. It turns out that White, like many of those just listed, also plays the piano and vibes. In 1994, White released Harlem Sunset (Postcards 1006), his first effort as a leader. Talk about a band! Gary Bartz, a tragically underrated reedman is on the gig, as is Buster Williams.

White explained his overarching process: "Music, for me, is a liberating force, and I want to write and play music that will make people feel better by opening them up to their own thoughts as well as to mine." In the near future, White plans to make a record of his compositions, featuring Ms. Allen and his spoken-word pieces. On Saturday's gig, he will open the show with a sampling of his prose pieces.

Get there early; for the best jazz-steeped poetry has an earthy lively quality that one hears in the music. This is literature whose words want to dance, to worry and capture the electrifying notes and lines of Monk's music, or that of Mingus and Coltrane.

Excerpt from review of Houston Person's All Soul

Chip White's compositional contribution to the session, "Time Stood Still," has a unique quality among the rest of the tunes. It has a modern, straight-eighth feel similar to some of Roy Hargrove's tunes. After Person and [Eddie] Allen state the closing melody, the two horns take some time to converse among themselves in some wonderfully interactive dialog, as the rest of the band vamps on the infectiously danceable groove.

From a review of Houston Person's "All Soul"

[Person is] joined by his touring rhythm section of pianist Stan hope, bassist Per-Ola Gadd, and drummer Chip White . . .

Person's own "Why Not" and "Put it Right There" serve as bookends for the date. In between, we are treated to Hank Mobley's "Bossa for Baby" and Benny Carter's "Wonderland," featuring Person with a swagger, with White riding high hat in ringing tones . . .

. . . White's soulful "Time Stood Still" begs for lyrics, which Person provides instrumentally by seeming to tell a tale to a woman about they first time they met and fell in love.

From "Personality," about Houston Person and a live performance of the Houston Person Quartet at the Jazz Standard in New York City

The peak of the set, following a fast "Secret Love," was a slow and squally "Since I Fell For You," Buddy Johnson's signature tune. Riding the backbeat with every kind of blues lick and kicking up a storm in the upper register, [Person] raged and caressed, then settled into a quick coda and out. And so it went, ending with a breakneck blues parsed by fastidious cymbal-slashing -- Chip White is a drummer to watch -- a chorus of "Happy Birthday" to his doctor and Mother's Day wishes.

From "With Etta Gone, the Applause Sounds Only Half So Sweet," a profile of Houston Person and review of a Houston Person Quartet performance

There was only one familiar element missing. Etta Jones, the vocalist who ahd worked with Mr. Person for more than 30 years in perhaps the most productive such partnership in jazz history, had died five months earlier. On the wall, behind Mr. Person's quartet, next to some fabric cutouts of half-notes and treble clefs, hung photographs of Jones and Mr. Person min misong, she in in satin and pearls, he biting down on his horn. At one point late in the first set, Mr. Person's drummer, Chip White, punctuated a solo by shouting out, "Etta Jones!"

CRITIC'S CHOICE

Progressive drummer/composer Chip White's auspicious debut as a leader is a sharp sextet date featuring saxman Gary Bartz and a brass section of Robin Eubanks and Claudio Roditi. This smart, swinging set flies high with the taut pulse of the opening overture of "Another Planet," the entrancing beauty of "Circle Dance," the languid modal blues of "Excuse Me Now," and the powerful, propulsive theme of "The Wizard." The title track recalls Miles Davis's acoustic '60s tonalities, and the lyrical interplay between Bartz and vibist Steve Nelson embellishes his take on Bill Eckstine's "I Want to Talk About You."

For his first album as a leader, drummer White summoned several well-known players, including vibist Steve Nelson, trumpeter, Claudio Roditi, trombonist Robin Eubanks, and bassist Buster Williams. Although everyone demonstrates a level of professionalism, the disc would be worth the cost if only White's fresh-sounding, hardbop/modal-derived tunes and the resourceful improvising of altoist Gary Bartz.

* * * * (four stars)
Drummer White has managed to create and context and repertoire where his playing is pivotal but does not engulf the proceedings on this excellernt album, one that recalls the early work of Tony Williams for the Blue Note label in its lucid ensemble sound. That sound is shaped by White's juxtabposition of three horns (trumpet, trombone, and saxophone) against a rhythm section of only bass (Buster Williams), his drums and vibes, with Steve Nelson playing the latter in a spiky fashion, creating off-rhythms to complement White's flowing drum patterns.

White's drumming can be almost cubistic in its crips edginess as he pointilistically builds rolling polyrhythms, as in the multi-odd-metered (6/4 and 3/6?) "Another Planet," where a cinematically heroic, heraldic theme courses over ripping drum patterns that continue behind horn solos inspired by the cubistic rhythmic motif. He takes a more supple tack on his own "Excuse Me Now," bringing a seductive flow to the 5/4 time signature made famous by Dave Brubeck to coax smooth solos from trumpeter Claudio Roditia and alto saxophonist Gary Bartz.

White reinvents the racing 8/8 of fusion on "The Wizard," horns singing a floating theme over the sweetly rolling rhythm, alternating with a swinging 4/4 during bright solos by trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibist Nelson, and alto saxist Bartz. There are also interludes of 4/4 during the solos on the waltz "Circle Dance," deftly arranged to emphasize Bartz's lead soprano sax.

Besides presinting a panoply of drum rhythms, times, and techniques (his burnished brush work on the Billy Eckstine ballad "I Want to Talk About You"), White presents an engaging program of mostly originals here, creatively arranged to present challenges for the soloists, who are aptly chosen for each piece. It makes for a thoroughly enjoyable, memorable album.

Performance 8
Sound Quality 8
You've never heard of Chip White. Buy "Harlem Sunset" anyway. It has Claudio Roditi and Gary Bartz and Robin Eubanks, battle-proven warriors all. It has strong new lines on which to improvise (composed by White), solos which flame with passion, and startling immediacy. And it has a secret weapon. Bassist Buster Williams throbs and twitches at the center of every song like a shaman inciting bedevilment.

White is a drummer with interesting concepts of how percussion can drive an ensemble without overwhelming it. He is an omnipresence, but he never keeps time. He lashes his cymbals by way of rhythmic inference and continuous commentary. His songs are all muscular, charging anthems, yet varied. "Another Planet" starts with drums alone and adds one horn at a time, setting off a cacophany which does not cohere into the theme for almost three minutes. "Club 609" (a Harlem venue where White gigs) is fond but definitely not sentimental. The minor motif of "The Wizard" evokes ominous ambiguities. (The Wizard, surely, is Buster Williams, pulsing like a heart of darkness.)

The solos tell the tale. Trumpeter Roditi is one of the most original thinkers in jazz. His brief statement on "Excuse Me Now" finds sudden gleaming shapes at every turn. The album's only standard is "I Want to Talk About You." Bartz cries it out alone on luminous alto saxophone. Eubanks' trombone solo on "The Wizard" is a ritual dance full of stutter steps, a mysterious call, a summons.

"Harlem Sunset" is a very promising start for Chip White and a new jazz label, Postcards.

Performance: Splendid
Recording: Very Good

When I heard the self-indulgent intro to drummer Chip White's "Harlem Sunset," I thought I was in for an ear-pounding experience. I was wrong. Although White does hog the long opening selection, even when his sidemen step up front, the rest of the album could almost be considered and exercise in percussive restraint. (Don't misconstrue -- I'm not criticizing a drummer for expressing himself on his own album, but they do tend to go overboard.) This is White's first album as a leader, and he gives ample room to his horn players -- trumpeter Claudio Roditi, saxophonist Gary Bartz, and trombonist Robin Eubanks -- all of whom use the space to advantage (theirs and ours). This cohesive group's ensemble sound harks back to the Fifties and Sixties, but the individual statements, especially those from Bartz and Eubanks, bring it into the present. Bassist Buster Williams and vibist Steve Nelson round out the quintet and help the leader keep the rhythm flowing unobtrusively.

In fact, it was when Chip was performing with Etta [Jones] and Houston [Person] at the Top O'The Senator [that] I had the pleasure of meeting him. I found Chip brimming with enthusiasm about his music, especially his new CD, and poetry, yes I said poetry. I will get to that shortly. First the CD, Chp White Harlem Sunset, on a new independent label, Postcards Inc. . . . Six of the eight numbers on this recording are by Chip, and a credit to him as a proficient composer, nice stuff. The other pleasant surprise was Chip's book of jazz poems entitled I'm Just the Drummer in the Band . . . These poems actually swing, you can almost hear Chip behind them playing drums.

* * * (three stars)
"Harlem Sunset," White's debut as a leader, contains inspired writing for sextet. Most of the tunes, all substantive, are White originals. Steve Newlson's vibes in place of a piano or guitar gives the band a different harmonic ring and shine in the rhythm section. White's formidable fills and solos suggest a combination of Blakey, former Cream Drummer Ginger Baker, and avant-garde drummer Sonny Murray. White studied with Alan Dawson, the famous jazz drummer and teacher from Boston. The horns are all first-class hard-boppers, alto and soprano saxophonist Gary Bartz, trumpeter and fluegelhorn player Claudio Roditi, and trombonist Robin Eubanks. Bassist Buster Williams anchors the bottom with resilient walking and commentary.

* * * * (four stars)
Drummer Chip White has been around, and the opening drum solo of "Another Planet" isn't shy about telling you this is a drummer's date. But the best thing about it is the A-level group -- trombonist Robin Eubanks, bassist Buster Williams, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and Gary Bartz, a superb alto saxophonist almost as deserving of a comeback as Sonny Fortune (who got one earlier in the year with his superb Monk record on Blue Note). It's on a gutsy and tasty and wonderfully promising label run by Ralph Simon with the obvious aim of letting bold and often brilliant players have their say unimpeded. Bartz carried Jackie McLean's tone to all sorts of brilliant post-Coltrane places, and is still doing it, even though his reputation perversely refuses to rise. There is superlative playing all through "Harlem Sunset," expecially from Bartz (e.g., "I Want to Talk About You," with Nelson and Williams.

Drummer/composer Chip White has been on the jazz scene long enough to rack up a range of career milestones. Born in 1946, White studied drums with his father and at Berklee "in the '60s, before it became a factory." After a stint in the Army, he spent two years with Tom Waits, gigged with Frank Wess, James Moody, Carmen McRae, John Abercrombie, Enrico Rava, Jimmy McGriff, and Jaki Byard. He also collaborated on a jazz musical with choreographer Kathy Sanson.

Now White, who has spent the last two years playing with the Houston Person/Etta Jones Quntet, has his first record as a leader on the Postcards label. "Harlem Sunset" boasts the refreshing configuration of Robin Eubanks, Claudio Roditi, Gary Bartz, Steve Nelso, and Buster Williams, and it showcases White's compositional skill. The drumming, powerful without being bombastic, has the ring of maturity. His debut may have been a long time coming, but the upbeat White has no desire to trade places with any young lions. "It made a difference to be there to hear Coltrane, Monk, Bill Evans, and Mingus. I'm proud of my age, and I hope to get much older."

Chip White Beats Vibrant Messages

Chip White's father used to tall the story about taking Chip to church when he was just a toddler. "I hadn't been to Mass in so long that I wouldn't have been surprised if the priest hadn't remembered my name. But he couldn't forget us because when Chip saw all those candles burning on the altar, my son started singing. "Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!"

Of course, you never knew whether it was true or not because Al and his father, Charles White, before him, were great storytellers, but one thing he was serious about -- and still is -- that practice makes perfect. On Harrison Avenue in Peekskill, where Chip grew up, when strangers passing through would look anxiously at the sky when they suddenly heard the roll of thunder, or duck, expecting a gangfight when they heard what they thought was the staccato burst of a machine gun, neighbors just shrugged and said, "That's no thunder -- no machine gun either. That's just Algernon White and his son, Chipper, practicing their drum rolls."

Every fourth of July, or Decoration Day, or whenever there was a parade in that little Hudson River town heading the parade was a group of drummers -- Algernon White, his brother Gilbert, a cousin Ronnie Peterson, and little Chip -- representing the Spirit of "76, those guys you see in the history books from the American Revolution.

In junior high school, Chip and three other youngsters had a jazz quartet that played at parties and local functions. By the time he got to high school and became a member of the Peeksill High School Jazz Big Band, he knew that music was his thing.

Travels -- Far
Further study at Ithaca College and Boston's Berklee School of Music produced a polished percussionist who has drums and will travel -- far.

Not only did Chip serve in Korea as an Army MP in Special Service, but as a civilian he's been sending out messages on his drums in concerts and festivals from coast-to-coast in the States, Canada, Europe and Japan, performing with such stars as Carmen McCrae, Jaki Byard, James Moody, Frank Wess, Hohnny Coles, Dave Liebman, Marion Cowings, Charlie Mariano, and Enrico Rava. Once a member of the rock band "Cynara," he soon formed the Chip White Sextet. Studying orchestration and arranging with Frank Foster, with Donald Byrd at Columbia, as well as with Alan Dawson, Mariano at Berklee and Freddie Buda of the Boston Symphony, when you hear his combo, you hear a lot of original compositions.

At the Blue Note and other clubs, the Chip White Sextet has been frequently booked. Even at the International Paper Plaza, where he and his group performed in an outdoor concert the other day, the lunch crowd applauded and a passenger in a stretch limousine in the traffic on 45th Street rolled down the tinted windows to get a better look at this outstanding group of musicians: Mike Cochrane, piano; Todd McKinney, trumpet; Dave Dunaway, bass; Dave Hubbard, tenor and alto sax and flute; and Chip on drums.

Caught 'Trane
Way back in the Sixties, Chip heard the great John Coltrane play at the legendary Birdland. "He was something bordering on the mystical -- so much knowledge, so spritual -- and changed my whole head. It was like watching somebody walking water. It was a great night -- I saw Jackie Robinson and his wife there. "Trane was making people aware of another energy."

Some of that same energy you could hear at that outdoor concert in "19th Street," by Chip -- a kind of international, exotic sound. Then there were those solos by Mike Cochrane, flicking out the melody with a strong right hand as he embroidered harmonies in the lower register on his own "Passing Thought." Dunaway walked with his bass and Chip's drums gave a bouncy support like Converse sneakers.

Hubbard, too, played a pretty ballad on his tenor -- in fact each member of the combo contributes their own numbers. Then the lovely icing on the cake is the articulate, attractive Vanessa Davis, who sang a tribute to Johnny Hartman -- "Lush Life," a song he recorded on an album with Coltrane. She also was wonderful on "Sashay Blues," a Chip gem.