A Lovely Day with Fred Johnson and The Michael Ross Quartet
All photographs by kind permission of Jayne Drooger of Tampa Bay Music News
The Tampa Jazz Club, long active in the Bay area, hosts a number of events at the Hillsborough Community College Performing Arts Center in Ybor City, an intimate state-of-the-art facility with superb sight lines and superior sound. On Sunday, March 11th, the club presented Fred Johnson, one of the area’s most revered jazz exponents, along with The Michael Ross Quartet.
Johnson has been a mainstay on the scene, although more recently he has been in New York working on social justice and similar issues. To say this was a triumphant return would be a gross understatement. In addition, he was playing with one of the finest jazz quartets you’ll hear anywhere, led by bassist Michael Ross.
And this is not an overstatement: this performance was simply “as good as it gets.”
Club president Bob Seymour provided a loving introduction for Johnson and the quartet, and out they came, all smiles as they strode on stage.
With that, Johnson counted them off into “Every Day I Have the Blues,” a wonderful jazz-blues hybrid that worked perfectly. Johnson’s voice was nothing short of spectacular, whether singing, scatting, or offering vocalese. I hear a man comparable to Jon Hendricks. Guitarist LaRue Nickelson dug right into this one, and Johnson also gave plenty of space to Danny Jordan on tenor saxophone. Ross and drummer Walt Hubbard had short features as well, and Johnson scatted away, throwing in “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and other lyrics as well.
Johnson was so engaging, dancing, laughing, emoting, having a great time. With that fine opener behind them, he settled in for a gorgeous “When I Fall in Love.” Nickelson got great Jim Hall-like tone, and Ross was masterful. Jordan again had much to say on his warm tenor.
Johnson next explained they would be playing a Ross original composition and asked Ross to explain it. He cracked everybody up with a funny story about naming the song “Giraffe,” and they were off to the races. Johnson had a cajón on stage (wooden box drum you play with your hands), so he sat down to accompany the band. Ross’s compositions are tightly constructed gems, and this new tune was a delight. Ross and Nickelson in particular were superb.
They followed that with another brief but beautiful ballad, “For All We Know.” Jordan switched to flute, even more satisfying than his tenor. Johnson then explained that the next song was “Sound Sculptures” and would be created using words that the audience provided. So he solicited responses, writing them down in a notebook on a music stand stage front.
Propitious. That was the first one out of the gate. Johnson asked for a definition to be sure the requester knew (giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorable). Bridge. Mermaid. Frim-fram sauce. Peace. Delicious. Razzamatazz. Bourbon. Boat. Jazz. Sailing. There were about 18 in all. Somewhere along the line, Johnson cracked, “They warned me about coming to HCC!”
Johnson then turned to the band and suggested a blues vamp. Ross and Nickelson dug in, Jordan’s flute offering a melody, and then Johnson started to sculpt. It was so perfect, so wonderful, that somebody hearing just the recording of the song wouldn’t know it was totally improvised. With each word he sang into the song, there were smiles and laughs all around. And the word for the day? Definitely propitious!
Seymour offered a brief intro before the second set, which began with “The More I See You,” a great pop tune rendered jazz style, Jordan still on flute. Johnson’s charisma simply filled the room as he joyfully danced and sang, the band swinging along behind him. He then took a moment to acknowledge the dean of local jazz musicians who was in the house, the remarkable John Lamb, a man with a deep resume including his tenor with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
“IMR” was a tune from the Ross Quartet’s 2000 album Doghouse. Ross did a shoutout of his own to Les Glick, then engineer on Doghouse and two more Ross albums, at which point there was some discussion about recognizing everybody in the audience, producing yet another round of grins and laughs. “IMR” again demonstrated Ross’s composition prowess with great solos from him, Nickelson and Jordan. Hubbard opened playing the drum kit with his hands, switched to mallets, and closed with hands. Sublime.
Johnson told us that Bill Withers songs required a lot of breath, adding that he and Ross had been working this one for some time. Ross opened the conversation before Johnson gave us “Lovely Day.” I confess that has always been my favorite song of his — and yet I’d never really paid attention to the lyrics. Johnson is a master interpreter, and I got every word. Absolutely superb, and thank you.
Johnson said, “The band’s been working on a great arrangement of ‘God Bless the Child.’ So we’re going to do that.” (I might have paraphrased.) The arrangement was indeed excellent, perhaps the most uptempo version I’ve encountered. Johnson again poured his soul into the song.
Johnson left the stage during “Blue Ice Hora,” a Jordan-penned song. This again showed off the power of the quartet. Hubbard’s coloring of every song in the set was spot on, and, if memory serves (I didn’t take notes), Jordan was on tenor again.
Finally, the band swung into a romping “Summertime,” more beautiful vocals and vocalese draped over great accompaniment by Ross and compatriots. Johnson then offered a several-minute closing sermon of sorts about loving one another, supporting jazz, appreciating the opportunity to perform for us, and more — all within the context of the song, which never stopped. Johnson could probably sing “War and Peace.” Well, the peace part, anyway.
Kudos to Fred Johnson, Michael Ross, Larue Nickelson, Walt Hubbard, Danny Jordan, Bob Seymour, the Tampa Jazz Club, and HCC Ybor for this magnificent Sunday afternoon!
[ONE: Every Day I Have the Blues, When I Fall in Love, Giraffe, For All We Know, Sound Sculptures; TWO: The More I See You, IMR, Lovely Day, God Bless the Child, Blue Ice Hora, Summertime]