KITCHENER, Ont., April 15, 2015 — The legendary trumpet player Herb Pomeroy died in
2007, but his innovative ways of arranging jazz music will be very much alive
at The Registry Theatre when guitarist David Thompson takes the stage on
Friday.
“The Registry concert is a
dream come true,” Thompson said in an interview.
Thompson studied under Pomeroy at the Berklee College of Music in
Boston in the
late 1980s, and learned what is called Line Writing. Pomeroy played with some
of the greatest names in jazz, including Charlie Parker and Lionel Hampton,
becoming famous as a swing and bebop trumpet player.
For years, Thompson created new arrangements of jazz standards,
and used the principles of Line Writing in his own composition, too. The
Registry Theatre gig will be the first time Thompson showcases this work, which
he calls harmonically rich and very linear.
“Every player has a melody. That’s what Herbie would always say:
‘Every player has a melody to play,’” Thompson said.
In most jazz shows, the artists play a melody, and then take
turns soloing.
“But this stuff is more through composed and arranged so that
solos come up and they go back into the written material. There is a continuity
there that has been really exciting for me,” Thompson said.
In Line Writing the arrangements, Thompson called upon the
lessons of the master jazz composer, Duke Ellington — getting everyone to play
the melody together, adding dissonance to make it richer and more lines to colour
the sound.
Thompson still remembers some of the central tenetstenants of Pomeroy’s approach — that every melody has an
internal arc, that some notes are more important than others, some notes are
richer, and some notes areplaner plainer.
“So your voicings are kind of doing the same thing, so you get
this three-dimensional kind of sound. That has always been fascinating to me.
When he first started teaching on it, my jaw just dropped. A eureka kind of
moment for me. That’s what I am attempting anyway, and I have a small band to
try it,” Thompson said.
Thompson will be playing with his usual trio, whichthat has Mark McIntyre on bass and Giampaolo Scatozza on
drums. He’s added a killer horn section — Dave Wiffen on sax, Rob Somerville on
trombone and Steve McDade on trumpet.
The set lists includes Thompson’s new arrangements of the
Ellington classics “Mood Indigo” and “Prelude to a Kiss,” Thelonious Monk’s
“Straight No Chaser,” Kurt Weill’s “My Ship,” which was recorded by Gil Evans
and Miles Davis. The singer Joni NehRita will join the show to sing one of
Thompson’s new arrangements.
“It is ‘Everything Must Change,’ the old Quincy Jones tune,”
Thompson said. “She is going to do that, kind of an R&B thing.”
The show will include some of Thompson’s original music as well.
“Actually, one of the tunes of mine called ‘Paper Boat’
originated as an assignment with Herb,” Thompson said. “You looked at a Duke
arrangement, and you had to write a new song based on the Duke song and use his
techniques and things, his road map, on your own tune. That tune ‘Paper Boat’
came out of that.”
Adding the horn section and Line Writing new arrangements bring
new sounds to the music.
“It also allows me as a guitar player to also be a horn player,
to be playing as part of that texture, so you get a four-part texture,”
Thompson said.
“And sometimes it also involves the bass, so five-part texture. And
then sometimes the bass player, Mark McIntyre will be playing tuba, he will be
one of the horns playing the bottom end there,” Thompson said.
The
Dave Thompson Trio + Three:
Friday, April 17
The Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener
Tickets $25
Tickets available at Centre in the
Square box office, or call 519-578-1570
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