Lynne Hart, Pat Smith & Richard Wagor
Roots of Rhythm
www.cdbaby.com/cd/lynnehartpatsmithrichard
Listening to the Roots of Rhythm album from the trio of Lynne Hart, Pat Smith and Rich Wagor, I am transported to a Woody Allen film in my mind. Allen’s use of early jazz music both reflects his particular taste in music and serves to ensure a kind of timelessness—that same timelessness is reinforced on this album by Hart’s clarinet. A staple instrument in early jazz, it also brings in echoes of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” famously featured in Manhattan.
The songs that the trio selected draw from the same Tin Pan Alley and so-called American Songbook standards from which Allen’s trademark soundtracks are made. In a recent conversation with bass player Rich Wagor, he explained it this way: “Roots of Rhythm hearkens back to traditional jazz and some of the more obscure influences of jazz. We are blending New Orleans, Klezmer and Gypsy forms of music in subtle ways that end up being mostly roots jazz.”
I’m not usually a fan of early jazz, but Roots of Rhythm’s interpretations of songs of this canon are satisfyingly developed into a contemporary portrait through the trio’s significant chops.
I particularly love their retooling of the 1941 Benny Goodman Sextet track “A Smooth One.” Wagor’s opening bass solo gives an unexpected contrasting noir spin that opens into a loping bluesy rhythm, allowing each of the musicians ample room to stretch out. The Sextet featured jazz guitar legend Charlie Christian; Pat Smith seems comfortable re-interpreting those parts on this as well as on another Sextet signature, the Jack Palmer/Spencer Williams tune “I Found A New Baby.”
The album’s live-in-studio approach to recording reveals the delightfully effortless interplay of Hart, Smith and Wagor. Roots of Rhythm serves as a modern primer to early jazz—back when it was common for artists and bands to interpret standards in their own voices. For me, this album brings a new deserved interest for these timeless classics.
