Code Blue Suite: Code Pink, Ironman Blues – But Seriously, Dig Me Man! The Last Breath Blues – All Alone Now, Code Jesus
The Sticks
Homage to Bud Shank
Snakin’ the Grass
Patty’s Bossa
Dis Here
Introduction to a Samba
Poor Butterfly
Song My Lady Sings
The Way You Look Tonight
Bohemia After Dark
Doc Stewart, Dan Higgins, Bill Liston, Rusty Higgins, Greg Huckins, Alex Budman (woodwinds); Wayne Bergeron, Dan Fornero, Jeff Bunnell, Ron Stout, Kye
Palmer, Larry Hall (trumpet and Flugelhorn); Andy Martin, Alex Iles, Scott Kyle, Bill Reichenbach (trombone); Matt Catingub (piano and keyboards); Kevin
Axt (acoustic and electric bass); Steve Moretti (drums)
CANNONBALL JAZZ CJ-2014
[78:48]
The Good Doc (Chris) Stewart has produced an exciting, varied album bursting with solo and collective strengths. Stewart really is a doctor and I assume
it’s his other half, Mrs. Doc, dressed in a naughty nurse uniform on the back of the card cover assisting him, none too professionally, as he ministers
with a stethoscope to his ailing saxophone.
Code Blue
is an appropriate peg therefore for a four-piece suite which reveals both the loose vibe the big band can summon as well as the forceful, juicy and
full-toned solo contributions – try the Cannonball-inspired alto solo from Doc, and concluding, coruscating cadenza, and don’t overlook the rich-toned
trumpet of Jeff Bunnell. Ironman Blues, the second movement of the suite, is interestingly voiced and the sax choir writing put me in mind of the
way Benny Carter voiced this section. Last Breath Blues is Doc all the way, whilst Code Jesus has a resurrection feel, a Gospel call and
response and a slow burn with a hint of Big Apple TV cop show theme tunes.
Arrangements are varied but largely the work of Tom Kubis and the band’s pianist Matt Catingub though the suite is the joint work of Stewart and Kubis.
They share a confidence and articulacy, a firmness of purpose. Kubis’s arrangement of The Sticks honours Cannonball Adderley’s original with
suitably punchy sectional work and ebullient swing. Kubis’ Homage to Bud Shank features a lyrical Doc solo, and piano too, as well as fine unison
sax voicings. Steve Moretti’s drum patterns drive Hal Gelper’s Snakin’ the Grass (nice title) ever onward and for more sonic enjoyment there’s a
slice of Latino, courtesy of Stewart’s Patty’s Bossa (I assume Patty is Mrs Doc). Blue Note hangs over the blues-infused Dis Here, the
Bobby Timmons standard arranged by Catingub and sensitively dedicated in the notes to that discographer extraordinaire, the late Chris Sheridan.
Only occasionally do things flag but whilst Introduction to a Samba, another Cannonball song, sounds a touch unrelieved, it’s soon followed by
Charles Lloyd’s nocturne, Song My Lady Sings with arranger Catingub taking a thoughtful piano solo. Oscar Peterson’s fast-paced swinger, Bohemia after Dark, ends the fourteen-track album on a real high and I’ve decided to forgive Doc his Paganini quote here, so driving and
straight-ahead is his solo.
This is a swinging and engaging album.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
CANNONBALL JAZZ 
