Urban Nomad

Chicago based saxophonist and composer Geof Bradfield was originally born in Houston, Texas. Following high school, he moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University's famous jazz program before moving on to earning a master's degree at CalArts. From there, it was on to New York where he lived from 1994 to 1997. After teaching at Washington State University for three years, it was back to Chicago where he works as one of the areas more accomplished musicians. Among the musicians he's worked with include Charlie Haden, Roscoe Mitchell, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Arturo Sandoval, Charles Earland, Lonnie Smith, Ben Monder, Matt Wilson, David Hazeltine, Joe LaBarbara and Avishai Cohen.

Bradfield's latest CD, Urban Nomad, finds him for the first time on one of his own CDs, working in the traditional jazz quartet lineup of sax, piano, bass and drums. As expected from knowing his work, this recording finds Bradfield playing music at an exceptionally high artistic and creative level. Able to get around his horn in much the same way as Eric Alexander, Bradfield none-the-less is able to fashion musical statements that are intuitive and harmonically well thought out at the same time. His solo on "Ever Ever Land" is a good example. Starting with a conception of diminished scales, Bradfield expands this thought to incorporate more blues-oriented passages before wrapping it all up with bop and swing strides.

Bradfield has chosen his co-horts well. Accompanied by New York born pianist Ron Perrillo provides Bradfield with a harmonic stylist who is able to follow the saxophonist's jumps to alternate chord sequences with ease and aplomb. As a soloist, Perrillo is another of today's bright young voices who finds quirky ways to build solos without the use of trite jazzisms. Drummer George Fludas is sympathetic to the two main soloists' ability to build solos, and is right there with them every step of the way; whether that is with his tight snare work or tasteful use of the bass drum. New York via Chicago bassist Clark Sommers is a responsive musician whose rock-solid support is used by the rest for some excitingly driving music.

Highlights include the tasteful ballad "I Carry Your Heart With Me," a hot version of Dizzy's "Con Alma," and "Ever Ever Land." While there are a few missteps that don't sound comfortable, such as Thad Jones' "Kids Are Pretty People," they don't greatly diminish the disc.

As Bradfield demonstrates, there are many exceptionally good musicians in cities all across the United States; one shouldn't just focus on the musicians coming out of New York for discovering young talent. Thank goodness there are labels like Origin willing to document these artists.