Fresh off a month of touring, Charlie Ballantine Trio comes home to the Jazz Kitchen

Charlie Ballantine flanked by Jesse Wittman and Cassius Goens  III

Small wonder that Charlie Ballantine evokes his early memories of music at the Jazz Kitchen by recalling being allowed to listen to the likes of John Scofield and Dave Stryker as a burgeoning jazz guitarist. 

He was still in his early teens, he told a large audience Saturday night, and his attendance even in the doorway of a nightclub serving alcohol involved a little winking at the law.

In one of the few interruptions of the music the guitarist allowed himself in his trio's first set, Ballantine assessed these slightly sneaky visits as formative in his musical direction and career decisions. His voice broke slightly in reminiscence. The guitarist's music has had a rootsy feeling for many years, and his geographical roots in central Indiana also are vital. 

The first time I heard him as a bandleader brought me up close to what still seems fundamental in his playing, even though he has grown into casting his net wide across the musical landscape. Of his "Providence," the title tune of an early CD, I wrote that it "evokes a hymn sung with gentle fervor on a Sunday morning in a country church, then seems to evolve into a ballad of lost love scratched out and crooned on somebody's front porch later that day."

He's a performer with a lyrical bent who flavors his melodic inspirations with assertive, crunchy chords. The textures sometimes add layers, but without congestion. A persistent  airiness suggests that there are always outside influences wafting over the Ballantine terrain. You could hear them in the Thelonious Monk ballad "Ask Me Now," along with explorations of the tune's blues aspects. Saturday's performance included a tidy, well-designed solo by bassist Jesse Wittman.

The set's third piece opened up into a short repeated chord pattern that invited drummer Cassius Goens III to exhibit his galvanic force, dexterity, and vivid feeling for bold colors. 

Bringing forward a treasured bit of folklore, the trio sailed into "Wayfaring Stranger" after Ballantine's unaccompanied opening solo, a recitative over a subtle drone pattern. In the main body of the piece, there were ringing tendrils in his phrase ends that came across as sighs. Then the intensity built among the three eminently compatible musicians. Ballantine's use of foot pedals added further textural interest near the end. This was a wayfaring stranger with a commanding tread.

Stylishly adept,  the trio showed its comfort level with the mainstream developments from bebop on, too. Dizzy Gillespie's "Con Alma" emphasized the sweetness of the theme as well as its driving potential. 

After a few more demonstrations of its interpretive range and the audience's enthusiasm, the trio responded with an encore: another folk chestnut, "Shenandoah." I guess when you come back home, it's always good to display what about you was never really left behind.

 

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]