Spondance is a 1986 octet performance of a jazz suite written by the pianist Jim Doherty, featuring his close friend Louis Stewart on guitar, plus six Los Angeles musicians: Bobby Shew (trumpet, flugelhorn), Bob Sheppard (alto sax), Gordon Brisker (tenor sax), Randy Aldcroft (trombone), Tom Warrington (bass) and Billy Mintz (drums).
The suite was originally intended for the Irish National Ballet choreographed by Domy Reiter-Soffer who, Doherty wrote, “confessed to knowing nothing about jazz and I confessed to knowing less about ballet, so it was agreed that I would write a jazz dance project.” Doherty’s wry humour aside, it may be a blessing in disguise that funding fell through for the theatre performance, because making this music danceable may have compromised what’s a dazzling set of ballads, Latin, bop and the blues.
One trace of the suite’s jazz-dance origins is that Doherty was inspired to create a “boy meets girl” narrative across the tracks and assign a persona to each soloist. The opening track “Nordic Maiden” has Stewart on guitar as the girl, and is a romantic ballad with a lush Gil Evans / Miles Davis feel to the horn arrangements and a beautifully lyrical solo from Stewart.
“When Two People Meet” has Bobby Shew representing the boy, first on flugelhorn for a quartet performance with the rhythm section, interspersed with lush horn fills. What follows is a “dance” between the full band and guitar/trumpet counterpointing, the band twice discreetly withdrawing for two beautiful guitar/trumpet duets.
The personae on “Bertha D. Blooze” are a madame called Bertha (alto sax) and her pimp El Sponzo (tenor sax). None of that matters, though. This is essentially a rhythm-changes workout with scorching bebop solos on alto then tenor saxophone, delivering the pulse-raising excitement of earlier great saxophone battles on rhythm changes. I was particularly reminded of Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins on “The Eternal Triangle”, Bob Sheppard’s alto suggesting to me a softer-toned version of Stitt.
“El Sponzo” is a Latin number that starts with a clave riff on piano (a rare moment of exposure for the self-effacing Doherty, who assigns himself no persona or solos) and drums supplemented by congas and a shaker, before settling into a samba groove featuring Gordon Brisker’s tenor saxophone. Tenor and alto then trade fours, before Brisker leads out on the head before a punchy ending.
“Sergeant Bones” (persona, a Keystone cop type character) showcases Randy Aldcroft on trombone playing a major blues that briefly quotes Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” – it’s fleshed out with some great horn fills, and more trading between alto and tenor sax.
Rounding off this most satisfying set is “Maybe It’s You”, which features cheerful ensemble playing on the head, and solos from trumpet, guitar and trombone. The horn arrangements are great, and include a tight unison passage towards the end.
All in all, it’s a corker of a session, recorded in just one day (mainly in single takes) after a rehearsal the day before – and despite its age, it sounds freshly minted. Congratulations to Livia for bringing it back to life – and (as with all other Livia re-releases since the label was reactivated in 2021) for wrapping this gift in beautiful packaging. The artwork on the front is a colourful homage to Henri Matisse’s Jazz art book (a vast improvement on the 1986 cassette cover of gold lettering on a plain black background), and the cardboard gatefold cover contains a 16-page booklet with photos, sleeve notes (both new and from the 1996 CD release), and bios for all the musicians.
In four words: great music beautifully packaged.
‘Spondance’ is released on 28 February 2025
