The Prime of Mr. Hugh Brodie

BY: George Chevalier -Woodstock Times-

The Prime Of Mr. Hugh Brodie In some past reviews, I've talked about the characteristics of young jazz musicians, who in some cases substitute technique for tone,dazzle for taste, and treat solos as the one chance they'll ever have to blow every note and phrase they know.

The antithesis to this by-no-means always accurate generalization was found Saturday at Unison Learning Center in New Paltz, in the person of white-haired tenor sax player Hugh Brodie, a storied veteran leading a foursome of storied veterans called the Fallen Dreams Quartet.

Antithesis, in fact,is an important component of Brodie's style: loud versus soft, complex versus simple, chromatic versus melodic, abstract versus concrete, foreign versus familiar. Brodie's genius lies in his ability to take these opposing elements and weave them into a synthesis of moving logic.

There is a certain incongruity to watching Brodie; that this tall and dignified figure, who looks like a college president, can bend double into a wailing blue note, or emit these animal screams way above the natural range of the tenor. But this incongruity extended to the other members of the quartet, keyboardist Walter Donnaruma, drummer Hal Miller and bassist Midge Pike, who look like the music faculty. Those who reckoned on an evening focusing on the academic and cerebral were in for a surprise, however.

The last time I'd seen Miller, he seemed to play with a gentle taste and restraint, focusing his attention on the ride cymbals. Saturday, he seemed to build momentum as the evening progressed, soloing hard and aggressively on "Take The A Train," stunning with Mallets on "El Toro."

Donnaruma was playing a Roland Keyboard that had a surprisingly authentic acoustic piano sound. Playing seamless, liquid, single-note solos that seemed to be slurred throughout, his left hand playing staccato chords that punctuated like rimeshots, Donnaruma's dynamism was an important part of the heat that was progressively generated.

The joy Pike has in playing is infectiously communicated to his audience-his Cheshire cat grin and humor seem to graft onto his strings as he walks, or runs, in the case of his solos.

The star of the show, though, was Brodie. Brodie's sax lines diving and swooping, then rising and scraping the sun, then holding a fifth or a tonic for a few bars to keep things in perspective. Brodie singing in the classic horn player style: well-phrased, scatting around a bit, so much of a stylist certain deficiencies are overlooked. Brodie historic. Brodie Sublime.