Once in a blue moon we hear Bob Bertles’s own band, and somehow it always sounds as if they have played continuously in the interim, so certain is the band’s group feeling. Leave aside a few little misses linking section to section (this can happen too if you are playing every night), the purpose never falters, the sound is somehow mellow and edgy at the same time, like a sharp, full bodied wine.
This rare occasion also marked the 50th anniversary of Bob’s musical associaton with drummer John Pochee, and on the night, Pochee replaced regular drummer in this band, Ron Lemke. Due to back trouble, Warwick Alder also dropped out, leaving the way clear for trumpeter Don Rader to give a memorable performance. It still sounded like the same band!
It is a bebop band, or more specifically a hard bop band, but many people do not know what that can mean. It means of course that trumpet and alto (or baritone or soprano) saxophone play the tunes mostly in unison harmony, with the lines dividing off at times, over a swing feel or sometimes over a soft exotic kind of Latin/rock feel. Bob has written a couple of beautiful tunes in the latter idiom, and on these he usually plays the soprano. This format, like any classic format, can be boring if the dynamics are not observed. Bob’s band cracks like a whip and suddenly drops to a level of extreme relaxation, breaks into fast agitation and swells a single note to high volume, with the trumpet shining on top.
The tunes are mostly original classics of the idiom, plus the occasional old classic. The band plays this music with a distinction that is hard to analyse. Call it experience, love, friendship – all of those. Bob was in particularly good voice on the alto, his sound full and keenly edged. His runs and sweeps are full of subtle detailing, little repeated notes in tiny spaces that give a joyful syncopation. Don Rader has one of the great trumpet sounds, a brass sound, sometimes cutting and powerfully projected, but a beautifully modulated sound. A soud too with weight. His lines are just wonderful and when he runs at a lower volume between hard strikes, the change in tone is most effective. His rendition of the ballad My Foolish Heart on the glorious side valve flugelhorn was an interlude I will not forget.
Let’s get this in perspective. Don Rader is a top line American player, probably best known for his time as the trumpet soloist in one of Woody Herman’s great bands. These days he lives part of the time in Australia, a fact that goes largely unnoticed.
John Pochee, a close associate of Don’s as well as Bob’s gave the band an inimitable drive and texture. Steve Aria was on bass. What a superb expressive player. And of course pianist Dave Levy is one of our great players, full, richly chorded, but with a mastery of the relaxation and the edgy drive of bop.
This was a wonderful night for me, even though a virus acquired while I had the flu had attacked my throat and gums. I thought it wiser to go home and watch the cricket and Tour de France from my warm bed soon after the beginning of the second half. I am assured that things stayed up there. People were still talking about it when I emerged from my rooms at Baker Street some days later (fussed over unnecessarily by Mrs Hudson and Dor Watson). Let me drill this into your fat heads. Go and see these masters next time, eh!