Charlie Moon: Guitar & Voice
Darragh Hennessy: Organ
Dominic Mullan: Drums
Michael Buckley: Tenor Saxophone
A residency is a great thing for a jazz ensemble. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is a vital thing, not only for the musicians involved, but also for the scene writ large. Organ Freeman’s weekly hit at The Big Romance every Sunday in Parnell Street has evolved into a hang for many musicians that strengthens the community and brings everyone together to exchange witticisms and merriment. I have always considered jazz to be an oral tradition, or perhaps more realistically have aspects analogous to oral traditions insofar that it requires exchange in person and on the bandstand. You can’t learn it from a book, you have to be in the same room as the music.
I once read an interview with Spike Wilner, the piano player from New York and the manager of Smalls Jazz Club, where he was talking about young musicians who sometimes ask him about how to “break into the scene”. His advice was simple: be on the scene. If you don’t hang, you won’t be called. It is indeed simple. Therefore, for the healthy development of the Dublin scene places like The Big Romance and Frankie Ryans, gigs that are less concerts and more sessions with lots of musicians lurking around, are vital. Don’t look to the universities, least of all this one, because they can’t and don’t replace this. If I ever inherit lots of money from a lost aunty in Leitrim, this sort of place is what I would buy.
The Organ Freeman lads, Charlie, Darragh and Dominic, have been running this gig for years now. I think it is probably up there with some of the longest running jazz residencies in Dublin, in my time at least, and when you listen to Busywork you can hear it. There is a real sympathy to how the three musicians interact, and with a bonus Michael Buckley (who is easily the most happening saxophone player in the country) you are winning… we all are winning.
The four of them bring to bear a lot of pretty heavy experience and accomplishments. Buckley has played with a long list of great musicians. Americans such as John Abercrombie, Joey Baron, Jason Rebello, The Mingus Big Band, Jason Moran, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Lee Konitz and a good deal of well-known Irish and European players. Moon meanwhile signed with New York-based jazz label Dot-Time Records to release his debut album Patchwork, joining the ranks of celebrated artists like Dave Liebman and Catherine Russell. Young Mr. Hennessy is playing with everyone in town and regularly skipping off for tours to exotic places like Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Athlone and Barcelona, while Mullan is knocking around with members of The Rolling Stones and Georgie Fame when not swinging his can off on a Sunday. These cats don’t do things in half measures.
Ostensibly rooted in the tradition of the organ trios of the 50s and 60s, the band’s set on this recording includes a mix of differing aspects of their musical personages. On one hand there are a number of tunes that come directly out of the repertoire recorded by ensembles of that era such as the Ray Brown tune Gravy Waltz and Hipsippy Blues, by saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded for the Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers album Just Coolin’. On another hand three standards: Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry, Make Someone Happy (a tune I just don’t hear often, but I do have a version of Coleman Hawkins playing it that I like very much), and Loads of Love from Richard Rodgers’ pen, which is absolutely popping here and one of my top picks on the album. All these standards feature the immeasurable vocal talents of Moon. Lastly, but not least in any regard, are a bag of extremely satisfying original compositions by Moon and Hennessy that comprise the bulk of the album.
My favourite tune on the record, perhaps oddly, is the last one: Cristo Redentor. Written by the pianist Duke Pearson originally for Donald Byrd in 1963 then recorded again in 1969 for his own album entitled How Insensitive these two original recordings feature a choral arrangement, with the Byrd version delivered almost a little like a New Orleans funeral dirge, and the latter version rendered a bit softer. However, for my money I will take the lads’ version. Hennessy’s introduction proves that Darragh does actually, indeed, have the blues, Moon’s solo is consummate and erudite, and Buckley brings it home with prodigious soul searching in the altissimo. It is just such a great wrap-up to a groovy, positive-vibing, and sincerely popping recording.
On Busywork the listener gets a real sense of how the band truly feels live, with the additional gloss by way of the masterful recording of Michael Buckley whose producing and engineering is par excellence. This is a really solid outing. One million stars. Available now on Bandcamp.