Bob Mintzer - Quality Time 'March 29, 1998 & March 30, 1998

Tracks list

tracks

1	Quality Time 
2	Overlap 
3	A Few Good Notes 
4	Emit A1
5	All Is Quiet 
6	Bop Boy 
7	Groovetown 
8	Gather The Spirit
9	Bossa 
10	Family

Personnel

Bass – Jay Anderson
Bass Guitar – Jimmy Haslip (tracks: 4, 10)
Drums – Peter Erskine, William Kennedy (tracks: 4, 10)
Keyboards – Russell Ferrante (tracks: 4, 10)
Piano – Phil Markowitz
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Electronic Wind Instrument,
Composed By – Bob Mintzer


As “quality time” is wholly subjective, others may find time spent
with saxophonist Bob Mintzer’s quartet(s) far more pleasurable than I. On
the one hand, Mintzer is a first–rate player, consistently resourceful
and well–respected by his fellow musicians; on the other, he seldom
manages to induce even the slightest response from my emotional
nerve–center — even though I’ve appreciated some of his
big–band endeavors such as Latin from Manhattan, Art of the Big Band and
Big Band Trane. Hard to explain? Sure it is. All the notes are enfolded properly
in place, and the music flows as evenly as it should, but a key ingredient seems
to be missing — call it personality, charisma or whatever. The upshot is
that Mintzer dances nimbly around these ears without ever fashioning a secure
impression. Not his fault, of course, but mine. He is, after all, merely
delivering the message; it falls on my shoulders to receive and decipher it,
something I’ve never been wholly able to accomplish. Would that it were
otherwise, but it’s not. As for the music on Quality Time,
Mintzer’s new release on TVT, it’s largely straight–ahead
and well–mannered. Mintzer penned eight of the charts, co–wrote
“Emit al” (on which he plays tenor, bass clarinet and EWI) with
Ferrante, Haslip and Kennedy, and rounds out the program with a traditional
hymn, “Gather the Spirit.” Rhythmically, Mintzer alternates between
the rock–shuffle cadences so often employed by his longtime colleagues,
the Yellowjackets, and more sophisticated backdrops, as on “A Few Good
Notes,” on which he plays soprano; the ballad “All Is Quiet,”
the fast–moving “Bop Boy” and the bluesy
“Groovetown.” There are two rhythm sections (with Ferrante, Haslip
and Kennedy sitting in on “Emit al” and “Family”), and
each might best be described as workmanlike but amorphous — aside from a
couple of respectable solos by Markowitz and Ferrante, this is Mintzer’s
date, and they are there to lend support, which they do. Quality Time is a
commendable session, well–planned and carried out. I regret that it
didn’t push any of my buttons.
JACK BOWERS

Related artists