Bob Reynolds is one of my favorite sax players and one of the touring members of the Snarky Puppy ensemble. His latest album, “Eddie Told Me So,” is an homage to the sax pioneer Eddie Harris, who was one of the first to play an electrified sax. Harris first made a splash on my radar with the “Swiss Movement” album recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which is considered an all-time classic. So when I saw the premise for this album from Reynolds, I knew it would hit the sweet spot, and it does on all levels. Each tune is emotive and showcases the perfect tone and feel that Reynolds always has when playing. It’s a great listen, for jazz aficionados, end-to-end. Check out my commentary and Bob’s liner notes shown in the shaded boxes for each track.
Track-By-Track
Harrisburg has a driving drumstick beat with a lush guitar and bass lead in for Bob’s sultry sax. There’s a shift from the sustained opening phrase to a more rapid stage replete with a conversational tone. The song is an original with a very recognizable main melody and it is so evocative, a great opener and tribute to Eddie.
Harrisburg is a song I wrote in the style of Eddie’s “Listen Here,” “Cold Duck Time,” and his performance of “Compared to What” with Les McCann from the 1969 live album Swiss Movement. It’s a straight-eighth, cross-stick, driving feel in 7/4 meter with a blues personality. Listen closely and you’ll hear me quote “Listen Here” in my solo.
When Your Lover Has Gone sounds old-school, and it is, with a terrific bass-guitar-drum opener. I hadn’t known the song title before this album, but I’d definitely heard the tune. Of course, “The Shadow of Your Smile” was a tune I heard a lot back in my youth so maybe that’s where the familarity comes from. Bob plays it so sultrily—with the accompaniment, it feels like it could be playing on a Saturday night in a smoke-filled Greenwich Village bar. I especially love the when Bob plays in the upper register. Andrew Renfroe has a sweet guitar solo as an interlude before Bob comes back to close with the main theme.
When Your Lover Has Gone is an old standard covered countless times—Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, Ella, Billie, Sinatra, even Carly Simon—but it doesn’t get played much anymore. We chose it as the vehicle to adapt two of my favorite Eddie Harris grooves: “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “The Shadow of Your Smile,” (theme song from a movie called The Sandpiper). Eddie recorded several movie themes. Listen to his version of “When a Man Loves a Woman” and you’ll hear our template. His “Shadow of Your Smile” groove lives in a similar space, so this track tips its hat to both.
Change Partners has a real Latin flair, and as the liner notes indicate, Reynolds is drawing upon a Sinatra-Jobim album version, so it makes sense. The flowing feel in this tune is so soothing, a great island flair. Renfroe has another beautiful guitar solo in this one. I can envision this tune emanating from a beachside resort on a lanai with tiki torches.
Change Partners is an Irving Berlin song that combines the feel from Eddie’s version of “On a Clear Day” with a rendition from the 1967 Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim album. I’ve always loved that album, and we even snagged the ending from Claus Ogerman’s orchestral arrangement. I’ll go on record as saying this is the closest I’ve ever come to emulating a singer’s vocal performance. Listen to Eddie’s “On a Clear Day” and you’ll hear the groove we borrowed. Listen to Sinatra sing “Change Partners” and you’ll hear how closely I traced his approach.
Just Friends sounds like a party song from the jump. The extended rapid riff from Bob is a roller coaster melody, non-stop. The segue into the duo between Charles Ruggiero (drums) and Mike Gurrola (bass) is seamless. Then there’s a seamless transition back to the trio format, with Bob continuing the rollicking trip right up to the finish. It makes me want to ride all over again.
Just Friends takes its cue from Eddie’s up-tempo swing version of “Love for Sale” from his album The In Sound. Our rendition of “Just Friends” looks in that direction, and we decided to record it trio. In a way, it’s two duos—first between myself and Charles, and then between Mike and Charles. Their duo is one of my favorite moments of the album. Mike’s walking bass solo is pure melodic momentum.
Eddie Told Me So starts with a deep upright bass and drum groove that’s all pocket. I took Bob’s advice and listened (again) to Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance,” and it’s easy to hear the connection. But this tune has its own swing for sure with Bob at his effervescent best. It’s swinging all the way. Andrew has a nice guitar solo at the 3/4 mark, and he matches Bob’s flowing melody perfectly. It’s a really powerful piece for the quartet, with each hitting hard.
Eddie Told Me So is my wink at the tune Eddie is perhaps most remembered for: “Freedom Jazz Dance.” Another song from his album The In Sound, it became widely known when Miles Davis covered it on Miles Smiles. “Freedom Jazz Dance” explores a chromatic and intervallic way of playing post-bop against a static harmonic backdrop. I took that feel and those concepts and worked them into a modified blues framework. It’s a 12-bar song that functions like a blues without sounding exactly like one. Listen to Eddie’s version of “Freedom Jazz Dance” and then “Eddie Told Me So,” and the parallels should appear.
Charade has a film noir feel, a bit mysterious and romantic simultaneously. It’s got great separation of the four instrument sounds that weave in and out as the tune progresses forward. Bob doesn’t mention it since it’s an Eddie Harris tribute, but the tune has that timeless feel of “Take Five” as well. Andrew leads a gorgeous guitar bridge section towards the end before Bob sweeps back in with a very rolling joyride of sax playing up to the end.
Charade is Henry Mancini’s theme from the movie of the same name starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. I’m a fan of the movie and Mancini, and was searching for a film theme that lent itself to a jazz arrangement—something Eddie did more than once. In fact, his version of the theme from Exodus wound up becoming the first gold-certified record in jazz. We put a little bit of a John Coltrane Quartet/My Favorite Things vibe on it.
You Don’t Know What Love Is has a seductive, slow-rolling opening. Bob starts down at the lower end of the tenor with very dulcet tones. Charles hits the cross-sticks like a metronome, and the quartet is cruising the boulevard. It’s a showcase for Bob’s perfect tone and breath control. I’m always a sucker for altissimo sax (a la Lenny Pickett from Tower of Power), so to hear Bob stretch in that direction is a real treat. Andrew’s guitar solo sounds like it’s vintage 60s or 70s George Benson. Bob’s enticing , soaring closeout makes me want to listen to it all over again!
You Don’t Know What Love Is doesn’t have a specific song counterpart, but this arrangement just felt aligned with so many things I’ve absorbed from Eddie’s playing. Along the way — and especially toward the end — I visit the penthouse floor of the saxophone range, that altissimo register he was so proficient in.
Personnel
- Bob Reynolds, tenor saxophone
- Andrew Renfroe, guitar
- Charles Ruggiero, drums
- Mike Gurrola, bass
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