Reservoir
Music
By Peter Aaron
...“Some
of the best playing his side men have ever done comes out when they’re
working with him. There was one session he did that [hard bop tenor
great] Joe Henderson played on [1991’s Pro€ le,] and it has
some of the best solos that Henderson had played in years.”
But
perhaps the recordings that really put Reservoir on the map in its
early years are the series of discs by renowned Albany area baritone
saxophonist Nick Brignola, who passed away in 2002. “Nick
was a very intuitive player,” Feldman remembers. “He
played all of the reeds extremely well, not just baritone, but tenor,
alto, soprano, whatever. And he was great in any style—beautiful
on the ballads, but also superb on the up-tempo stuff and on blues,
even ‘free’ stuff.”
A
special arm of the label’s catalog has been its New York Piano
series, which spotlights the many great jazz pianists working in
an around the city, players like Barry Harris, Steve Kuhn, Rob Schneiderman,
Dick Katz, Hod O’Brien, and Pete Malinverni. The series is
also home to Feldman’s personal favorite session, The Missouri
Connection, a 1992 collaboration by two of the instrument’s
eternal masters: Kansas City swing pioneer Jay McShann and St. Louis
hard bop icon John Hicks, both of whom died not long after the album’s
release.
“Being
there for that recording was just incredible,” Feldman recalls
from the football €eld-sized kitchen table that also serves as the
label’s of€ce. “Watching those guys interact was like
seeing the two eras of jazz history coming together. I would pick
up McShann from the hotel he was staying at and then drive to Hicks’
house to pick him up, and the whole length of the ride I’d
get to listen to McShann talk about the early days, about when Charlie
Parker was just starting out and playing with him. Really amazing.
And the music on that CD is just so warm and beautiful.”
CONTINUE...
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