1. Blues for C Piff
2. It's Surely Gonna Flop If It Ain't Got
That Bop
3. Mary Anne
4. Tetemetearri
5. Dr Midnight
6. The Odd Couple
7. China Cat Sunflower
Cameron Pfiffner - Tenor sax, soprano sax,
flute, piccolo
Pat Mallinger - Tenor sax, alto, sax, Native
American flute
Pete Benson - Hammond B3 organ
Ted Sirota - Drums
Wikipedia
tells us that "All saber-tooth mammals lived
between 33.7 million and 9,000 years ago".
That's rather longer than Sabertooth have
been the late-night resident band at the Green
Mill club in Chicago every Saturday. But the
group has been a regular attraction there
for 14 years, and this CD helps to explain
why. The quartet is led by two eccentric saxophonists:
Cameron Pfiffner, who is noted for the unusual
range of hats he wears to each gig, and Pat
Mallinger. Both are versatile musicians, playing
a variety of instruments in a variety of jazz
styles. Certainly they can deliver straight-ahead
swinging jazz which gets the foot tapping,
as they do in The Odd Couple. But their
range is wider: embracing bebop (as in It's
Surely Gonna Flop), calypso (Mary Anne)
and even a Grateful Dead tune by Jerry Garcia
(China Cat Sunflower) - which chugs
along with a boogaloo beat.
The
two leaders (Cameron and Pat) contrast well
with one another: the former being the more
traditional; the latter tending to take more
risks. But with both men - indeed, with the
whole group - you can expect the unexpected.
And that's one of the things that keeps this
session bubbling with excitement. For example,
Telemetearri starts with mystical Native
American flute backed by Ted Sirota's tomtoms
and growls from the Hammond organ. When the
tenor sax enters, it echoes John Coltrane
in its explorations, and then organist Pete
Benson plays a gruff solo. And the title-track
evokes the eerie feeling of the witching hour
- with wailing sounds, unaccompanied tenor
and tortured alto.
The recording quality is sometimes rather
fuzzy, especially during the Hammond organ
solos, but this album can be recommended for
the atmosphere it conveys of a talented and
eclectic band playing for everyone's pleasure
until early on Sunday morning in a Chicago
nightclub.
Tony
Augarde
CD Reviews
Delmark DE 579
