With a two-brother front line plus 'the Mayor,' Prophets proclaim in Jazz Kitchen return

Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets in full cry at the Jazz Kitchen 

A common understanding of prophets is that they predict the future. But prophecy also encompasses telling the truth, as Old Testament prophecy reminds us. So Derrick Gardner's longstanding name of his bands as the Jazz Prophets surely wants to lay claim to the truth-telling function. It's doubtful any creative musician wants to trumpet to the world: "My music may be insincere, but it's pretty good." Truth provides the heartbeat.

So we can take Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets as truth in labeling. The fact is substantiated by a couple of discs that originated here a few decades ago during the the heyday of Owl Studios.  And it was further confirmed Friday with the band's return to the Jazz Kitchen.

The sextet is directed by Derrick, a fiery trumpeter, with his brother Vincent as first-class trombonist. Completing the front line is saxophonist Rob Dixon, whose local prominence was saluted by the bandleader with the "mayor" title that has been affectionately attached to him for years. Filling out the group was a new rhythm section: pianist Isaiah Jones, Jr.; bassist Ivan Taylor, and drummer Cliff Wallace. 

Of the players new to me, I was particularly fascinated by the pianist, whose solos on the first set's four tunes had a nice breadth of expression and texture. Yet they didn't seem to be all over the place, but had a solid cohesive quality. There was an orchestral balance to them, yet I hasten to add they swung from stem to stern.

Bassist Ivan Taylor, whose solo in Jackie McLean's "Appointment in Ghana" was the set's first opportunity to hear him at length, seemed frantically busy. But that was just one side of his adeptness. In Derrick Gardner's "Dig That," he sounded laid-back in his thoughtful, grooving solo, with note choices that countered the scattershot impression I had at first. 

Occasional punctuation by the other horns sometimes enlivened the third hornman's solo in the band's shrewd arrangements. The trombonist showed the kind of flair and steadiness that has earned him the first chair in his section of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In "Appointment in Ghana," he started his solo with a series a brief, two-note outbursts, playing peekaboo with the rhythm section. He was dependably expansive from that point on.

Dixon was reliably vivid and sometimes flamboyant on both alto and tenor in the course of the set. I admired his own "Ten Thousand Ships," a title I thought might have been inspired by Lord Byron (whose line "Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain" made me both suspect and doubt that a quotation was intended). The brooding nature of its opening line, with the horns in lockstep,  encouraged that connection in my English-major mind. 

The drummer's best exposition came in the set-ender, Pat Metheny's "Timeline," whose lead sheet online revealed to me its inspiration in the unique drumming style of Elvin Jones: "For Elvin" appears just under the title. Sure enough, Wallace's climactic soloing bore the Jones stamp in the mixed distribution of accents and patterns sometimes called "spread rhythm." Metheny's theme itself paid tribute to the influential drummer: The unison display of the melody by the front line set the tone. Derrick Gardner's solo was commanding; Dixon, Jones and Taylor followed suit. The ensemble came to a dashing conclusion.

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]