Nashville-born, IU-trained Roland Barber pleases a range of fans at the Jazz Kitchen

 

Roland Barber plays big horn, and is big with the spoken word as well. 

Of all the brassmen-bandleaders I've seen over the years at the Jazz Kitchen, I've never come across one so fond of talking as Roland Barber, who played last night fronting his current quintet  — almost putting the music to the side as illustration of what he had to say.

No question that he engaged the capacity audience during the first set. He bantered with the crowd about how they viewed relations between the sexes as well as what moods they wanted the group's music to express. Everyone ate it up, right down to agreeing that the set had plenty of appeal to both jazz newbies and seasoned fans. 

Tenor saxophonist Greg Tardy joined the trombonist in the front line, holding his own with his forceful tone and compact improvisational ideas. The rhythm section worked as a cohesive unit and distinguished itself in solos: Clay Perry, piano; Jack Aylor, bass; Joshua Cook, drums.

Of the half-dozen tunes played, the finale was the most extensive and the best at sweeping the

Expansive, amiable bandleader shared front line with Greg Tardy.

talkativeness away: "Yes I Can" is an original blues, offered at a strutting mid-tempo that testified to the self-confidence of its title. Everyone took a definitive solo, and the mood was joyous throughout the club.

Also standing out was a very slow take on "My Romance," Barber's response to the audience's request, with multiple-choice prompting, for a sentimental song. The Rodgers and Hart evergreen was loaded with affection and deep feeling in the trombonist's plunger-muted showcase, with Tardy sitting out.

I was fond of the clever arrangement of an original ballad, "Learning to Love," which toward the end wagged a long tail marked by four repeated notes at the same pitch, distributed thoughtfully around the band. It was as if Barber wanted to emphasize how essential it is to practice one's best way to get the lesson of the title.

I don't mean to suggest Barber's not talking would have been better. We learned just enough  about his debt to a couple of trombone masters: Jimmy Bosch, a Puerto Rican musician and a fixture of the New York scene, and Indianapolis' own J.J. Johnson. They were saluted musically when the quintet performed Johnson's tribute to his wife, "Carolyn (in the Morning)," and Barber's composition honoring his interest in salsa and admiration for Bosch, "Mambo in La Copacabana." It was a case of the music partnering proportionately with the oral program notes, and it worked.

[Bandstand photo by Rob Ambrose]