African Tarantella
Since establishing himself as the most exciting vibraphonist of his generation, Stefon Harris has strived to establish himself as an exciting conceptualist as well. He overextended himself with his 70-minuteGrand Unification Theory(2003), written for a 12-member ensemble, but creates something warmly cohesive in reworking selections from Duke Ellington's "New Orleans Suite" (1970) and "Queen's Suite" (1959) and crowning them with excerpts from his own Ellington-minded "Gardner Meditations." There is no lack of Dukish flavor here--not with trombonist Steve Turre's muted growls, clarinetist Greg Tardy's emulations of the great Jimmy Hamilton and bassist Derrick Hodge's percussive nod to the early Ellington bassist memorialized on Duke's "Portrait of Wellman Braud." But Harris is after more of a classical feel with his use of cello, viola and flute. The atmosphere can get a bit too rarified for Ellington, but this 12-person cast gets his bluesy, shifting overtones right and the interplay between the leader and pianist Xavier Davis energizes the sound--especially on the hypnotic "Sunset and the Mockingbird" from the 1959 suite. Harris' lovely, shimmering "African Tarentella" makes you want to hear the rest of "The Gardner Meditations," a commissioned work written while he was in residence at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in its entirety.--Lloyd Sachs