Press

ROOT DOWN By JENNY FENIAK

Cool customers

Birth of the Cool . Featuring P.J. Perry, Rubim de Toledo, Ken Hoffman, Dean McNeill, Craig Brenan, Leonard Swanson, Jordan Faulds, Chris Andrew and Lyle Molzan .

Yardbird Suite . Fri-Sat, Apr 30-May 1

Trumpet player Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans broke new ground in the world of jazz with the release of his Birth of the Cool recordings in 1949 and 1950, which melded the frantic circumlocutions of bebop with a new approach that was airier, more laid-back, more, well, "cool."

"I was so attracted to this recording," explains Rubim de Toledo, bassist with the local Latin band ¡Bomba! and the visionary behind this weekend's Birth of the Cool tribute performance at the Yardbird, "but because of the limited audio quality of the album, I knew I was missing something. I could only imagine what these arrangements would sound like live. That was my inspiration for putting this project together." De Toledo volunteered his idea to baritone sax player Ken Hoffman when they were working together on a CKUA project last fall. Skilled at copying and arranging music, Hoffman quickly joined forces with de Toledo and began seeking out players to fill the shoes of Davis and Evans's original nonet. (De Toledo was responsible for recruiting the rhythm section while Hoffman called up his wind and brass contacts.) "We're really lucky that we got P.J. Perry to get on board," Hoffman says, "'cause he's pretty much the quintessential jazz saxophone player in Canada.... It's quite an impressive résumé if you put everything together on one sheet of paper."

LPs weren't around in 1950, which meant the original Birth of the Cool recordings had to be squeezed onto 78s, forcing the songs to be condensed into two or three minutes. "We've extended some of the tunes because we've got all these great soloists," Hoffman explains. "You want to give them a chance to develop their ideas within the context of the piece a bit more. But we've spent a significant amount of time sitting down and figuring out where it's appropriate to do that and to try and maintain the integrity of the overall composition.

There's such an interesting combination of musical backgrounds that I'd like to think that maybe we could distill our own sound out of this whole thing."

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