Tag Archives: charlieparker

Kevin Eubanks: Face To Face @ 40

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You know you’re doing something right when the boss takes an interest.

GRP Records was just coming into its own when label co-founder Dave Grusin co-produced, arranged and played keyboards on brilliant guitarist Kevin Eubanks’ fourth solo album Face To Face, released 40 years ago this month.

Part of the so-called Young Lions generation, Eubanks’ first major gig had been with Art Blakey. His playing was a turbo-charged fusion of Wes Montgomery, George Benson and John McLaughlin, and by 1986 he was a seriously hot property.

Face To Face remains probably his best solo album to date and one of GRP’s best too – but it’s still not on Spotify and bloody hard to find on CD… It apes the kinds of albums Verve and CTI were making in the 1960s with Montgomery and Benson, mainly jazz, Latin and pop covers with rich string arrangements and high production values.

But this one also benefits from some fantastic bass playing from Marcus Miller and Ron Carter (but hardly any drums – Buddy Williams is almost inaudible and the rhythmic energy comes from the percussion, guitar and bass).

As the 1980s progressed, mastering engineers were looking for new ways to push the bass front and centre in the mix, and here Miller obliges with one of the hottest slap tones ever committed to vinyl – the version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Moments Aren’t Moments’ and title track are almost comical examples.

Grusin writes a new middle eight for the Bacharach/Bayer Sager classic ‘That’s What Friends Are For’, inspiring an absolutely brilliant Eubanks solo, while Carter and the guitarist duet beautifully on Charlie Parker’s ‘Relaxin’ At Camarillo’ and Montgomery’s ‘Trick Bag’.

Elsewhere the delicious version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Wave’ may be its best cover version bar none. The three Eubanks originals are cool too, marrying his love of bebop, funk and McLaughlin. The mixture of his steel-string acoustic guitar and Miller’s bass is original and exciting.

Sadly Face To Face proved a bit of a false dawn in terms of Eubanks’ tenure on GRP and subsequent solo career, though his brief period on Blue Note in the 1990s has some fans. He also spent a long time on TV in Jay Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’ band, and guested fruitfully with artists like Dave Holland, Greg Osby and Will Downing.

But arguably his solo career has been hampered by a lack of memorable original compositions, not a problem on Face To Face. Happy birthday to one of the great guitar albums of the 1980s.

Story Of A Song: Chaka Khan’s ‘And The Melody Still Lingers On’ (1982)

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Jazz regained some ground in the ’80s.

After a chastening period in the late-’60s and ’70s when rock pretty much swept all before it, major labels took a renewed interest in established jazz acts and underground movements flourished (no wave, acid jazz, harmolodic funk, neo-bop). Wynton Marsalis, Miles, Courtney Pine and Loose Tubes even put jazz back on primetime TV.

But when Chaka Khan recorded ‘And The Melody Still Lingers On (Night In Tunisia)’, the dramatic centrepiece of her What Cha’Gonna Do For Me album, she arguably set the whole revival in motion.

Dizzy Gillespie, Arif Mardin and Chaka Khan

Dizzy Gillespie, Arif Mardin and Chaka Khan, Atlantic Studios 1981

It was producer Arif Mardin’s idea, his mind wandering during a flight between New York and LA. The album was one song short – so how about a tribute to the bebop masters of the ’40s using the crème de la crème of the early ’80s soul/R’n’B/jazz session players? They could use Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli’s 1942 bebop classic ‘A Night In Tunisia’ as a template.

Chaka loved the idea. Mardin hoped to find a lyricist but deadlines were pending so he tackled it himself with Chaka adding the final touches. Mardin made a demo of the arrangement which cheekily inserted Charlie Parker’s famous 1946 alto break.

Charlie Parker in 1946, photo by Ted Giola

Charlie Parker in 1946

A lengthy chart was quickly made up (resembling a ‘Chinese laundry list written in cuneiform’, according to Mardin) which included eight spare bars for the insertion of the Parker lick.

The musicians – Casey Scheuerell on drums, David Foster and Ronnie Foster (no relation) on keys, Abe Laboriel on bass and Paulinho Da Costa on percussion (mostly heard on shaker in the first verse and congas in the second) – were booked and smashed the tune in one take.

Herbie Hancock later contributed a brilliant synth solo. Chaka then added her sublime vocals. Her four-part big-band harmonies and spine-tingling ad-libs bring the song right up to date.

But there was still space for an opening head melody and a solo in the final verse. Dizzy had been sent the demo by Mardin with a note asking him to contribute.

But the bebop legend replied that he would be on tour and so couldn’t make the recording session – but he suddenly arrived two days before the album’s mastering date at New York’s Atlantic Studios to add his part. The track was complete.

Chaka and Mardin attempted to repeat the trick a few years later with ‘Bebop Medley’ but it lacked the finesse of this timeless classic.