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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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Cool School
CD Review:
Bobby Bradford & the Mo’tet
Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Water Boy Records, 2003
Call it Cool School in a Hot Spot. Bobby Bradford & the Mo’tet Live at
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art documents the confluence of two
important streams in West Coast jazz. Bradford—called “one of the best
trumpeters to emerge from the avant-garde” by jazz critic Scott Yanow—is
an adventurous horn man who has been associated with Pomona College
since 1974, serving as a lecturer in music and director of the Jazz
Ensemble.
For its part, LACMA has a tradition of introducing audiences to modern
music, from the now-fabled Monday Evening Concert Series straight
through to today’s Friday Night Jazz Series (which hosted these sessions
recorded in August 2002), a series that has made the museum a six-time
national winner of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous
Programming.
 It’s a bit of a surprise, then, that such an ideal marriage should get
off to a rocky start. It takes a few bars for the sound to come together
on this four-song, hour-long set, perhaps because—as the CD booklet
notes—drummer William Jeffrey was caught in traffic and doesn’t enter
the musical fray until well into the first song. But once the foundation
is in place, Bobby Bradford & the Mo’tet Live offers an excellent set of
modern jazz that illustrates the dynamic give-and-take of ace musicians
on a shared musical journey.
The opening piece “Crooked Blues” gives Bradford, sax man Chuck Manning
and trombonist Michael Vlatkovich room for solo improvisation between
group work that mingles their lines like paint swirls in a Pollack. The
rhythmic bed provided by Jeffrey, guitarist Ken Rosser, bassist Roberto
Miranda and pianist Don Preston (whom many may recognize as a longtime
member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention) is equally dynamic. “A
Little Pain” follows, offering the CD’s strongest musical theme. It pits
compelling discordant harmonic intervals against what sounds
suspiciously like a spy movie theme. The backbeat is funky, the mood
playful; Bradford even stops by a few bars of “You’d Be So Easy to Love”
as the track chases the Mo’tet’s muse.
Third track “Sideman” is the most conventionally melodic of the set and
features some lovely guitar work from Rosser. The set closer, “She,” is
slow and moody, reminiscent of contemporary ambient music. Miranda’s
eerily beautiful bowed bass work is a standout as thick swirling sound
builds to bring the set home by restating musical themes from “A Little
Pain.”
Bobby Bradford & the Mo’tet Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
is not easy listening jazz or aural wallpaper. It commands your
attention and rewards the effort, a work of modern art that keeps up
with its company.
—David Scott |
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