Perhaps it's reasonable to assume that jazz is a lost craft, that the world has passed it by. There are, after all, so many amazing new things out there to hear. But on occasion, when walking past some dive bar in a shady part of town, one hears a musician playing something that, for lack of a better term, is remarkable. It's times like these that one feels transplanted to another time where "drum and bass" had a different meaning.
     It's still more remarkable when a musician evokes such a sensation on their first record. You may not be a jazz aficionado, or even own any jazz music, but you'd be hard-pressed to say that Larry Vincent isn't a damn fine musician or that he doesn't know his way around a guitar. Maybe you can't put your finger on why this newcomer's music sounds so polished. Well, being able to play jazz is only one part of putting out a memorable recording; the company you keep often plays an equal (or greater) part.
     Vincent, a native of Venezuela, is known to haunt many a nightclub in Knoxville, Tennessee, as well as the University of Tennessee's renowned jazz department. He studied there under guitarist Mark Boling, so naturally he turned to the veteran when assembling a group to record his first album, In Exile -- perhaps so titled to remind us of his origin (before getting his master's degree in jazz, Vincent performed extensively throughout South America).
    Joining him are Donald Brown, a master pianist and UT faculty member whose own exploits include several solo albums and performances with the Art Blakey group, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, and countless others. Of course, Brown's piano playing is only one part of the group's dynamic, but on many tracks it sets the pace and tone. Rusty Holloway (also a member of the Mark Boling Trio) steps in on bass. Holloway (another member of the faculty) has graced the stage with such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Monty Alexander, and Sarah Vaughn, and was also a member of The Woody Herman Orchestra. Rounding out the group are drummer Chris Gray and saxophonist Tom Johnson.
     While it's certainly not the hub of jazz, Knoxville has its share of amazing artists, who seem to grow in number and stature every year. While jazz may not be at the forefront of today's music scene, it's refreshing to hear someone who hasn't lost an appreciation for one of America's most important musical genres. As long as there are artists like Vincent, Boling, Brown, and Holloway, we can be assured that jazz is not a lost art.
A. Newton, www.epitonic.com   

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Who would expect an exciting jazz scene to arise from the city of Knoxville, Tennessee? That's not to say that jazz is a big-city phenomenon and that regional variations don't exist. They do. (Consider the Kansas City jazz scene's influence in the 1930's.) But the allure of widespread recognition and the chance to perform with nationally known artists are magnetic attractions indeed, pulling talent into the big-city jazz centers with accelerating intensity. Donald Brown of Knoxville, though, put his career in the reverse direction, choosing to leave New York City for a teaching career at the University of Tennessee.

In the case of Larry Vincent, he chose to move from his native country of Venezuela to study jazz at the University of Tennessee. With innate talent and under the tutelage of Brown, guitarist Mark Boling and saxophonist Jerry Coker, Vincent soon became a local force in the Knoxville jazz scene himself. Now, Vincent has released his first CD on which he's the leader, and the talent that Knoxville residents were enjoying all along is available for everyone else to hear.

One would expect Vincent to inject a Latin sensibility into all of his music, combining jazz with clavé as do exceptional dual-temperament musicians like Gonzalo Rubalcaba or Paquito D'Rivera--not to mention American jazz musicians like John Patitucci or Gary Burton who explore Latin music. But Vincent's interest, by the weight of the evidence on In Exile is in bop and balladeering, as it is for the other musicians on the CD. Indeed, "Golsonish" pays unabashed tribute to one of the extant leaders of bop, not to mention an ever-larger circle of styles. The tune, with a light groove similar to "Along Came Betty's," provides Vincent with the opportunity to stretch out over extended improvisation, chorus after chorus providing a new perspective upon the tune he created. On the other hand, the CD's opening track, "Prince Paradox," with its twisting lines and pouncing attack at the end of a phrase, arises from the hard bop tradition.

"The Lion," a more atmospheric and modal piece, relies upon the haunt of the bass and drums to establish tension under Vincent's apparent ease while Brown attacks the accented interjections with confident strength and chorded density. "In Exile," like most of Vincent's other compositions, contrasts a rippling rhythm against the apparent ease of the guitar/sax unison melodic lines, in this case in three-four time. "Over The Rainbow" proceeds without ostentation or undue embellishment, but instead respects the inherent, prismatic beauty of the tune itself, while "Giant Steps" undergoes a minimalistic and stretched interpretation, guitar playing solely with drums.

The Latin presence on In Exile occurs on "Sueño De Niño," a five-four romp written by Vincent's friend, Gerardo Chacón. Even so, Vincent's presentation of the Venezuelan tune contains the surge and compulsion of jazz, the stress being on the "four-five" of the measure instead of the "three-and" of the rumba or more familiar types of popular Latin music. Further proof of Vincent's originality is the final track, "El Diablo Suelto," a 6/8 piece more in tune with inland Latin cultures accustomed to mariachi bands and less influenced by combined multiple-metered percussiveness of Caribbean music. Somewhat stately and altogether infectious, "El Diablo Suelto" paints a dance scene wherein the feet tap out the rhythm even as upper bodies remain still. More importantly, the tune reveals yet another aspect of Vincent's musical personality.

With an appealing purity of tone and a seemingly calm attention to the melodic potential of the music he plays, Larry Vincent represents a genuine jazz discovery in the town of the 1980 World's Fair and one that's a short distance from the Great Smoky Mountains. He could have joined other jazz groups in larger cities where he could have generated more publicity, but he chose to stay in Knoxville.

DW

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