Reviews
From Le Jazz April #6: [Rich Norman] Rich Norman and the Kind
Live at Parker's, Amsterdam
1) All The Things You Are (Kern) - 2) Flintstone's Theme
- 3) Jimmy Luttrel & His Amazing Guitar Boogie - 4)
Bluesette (Thielemans) - 5) Caravan (Ellington) - 6) On A
Clear Day (Lane/Lerner) - 7) Sweet Georgia Brown
(Bernie/Pinkard/Casey) - 8) Bye Bye Blackbird (Ray
Henderson)- 9) Cherokee
Rich Norman (d), Jim Luttrell (g), Bill Markus (b). Recorded live in Amsterdam, 1994.
They must have had a hot time at Parker's in Amsterdam on
the evening in 1994 when drummer Rich Norman, guitarist
Jim Luttrell and a bass guitarist recorded this spirited
slice of life. Somewhere between jazz and a boogie-ing,
down-home style, this is all you could want in a bar
band: energy, fun and more than enough expertise to keep
the patrons ears cocked. Listen to Norman get up from
behind the set and walk around the room
rickety-tick-ticking on everything he can find, from
tables to glasses to the wall, as the crowd whistles and
claps. The tunes include "All the Things You Are,"
"Bluesette," Luttrell's "Amazing Guitar Boogie",
"Caravan" and a quickly taken "Cherokee," where Norman
shows he can keep the cymbals swinging elegantly at speed
as well as solo thunderously on the traps. Luttrell, a
fleet and competent guitarist, gets the lion's share of
the solos. [TS]
Jazz Now Magazine writes:
[Live at Parker's, Amsterdam 1994] Rich Norman and the Kind
Live at Parker's, Amsterdam 1994
Rich Norman, drums; Bill Markus, bass; Jimmy Luttrell, guitar
Rich Norman has upped the ante in modern Jazz drumming. The pyrotechnic
display of lightning fast licks you expect as the grand climax of a Jazz set
here becomes routine accompaniment. The patterns change constantly, at least
every four bars and usually more frequently than that. They differ from the
rolling thunder patterns of Elvin Jones in that Norman uses the tom-toms
sparingly, going instead for light and tight effects on snare, rims, and
cymbals. (Also on table-tops, chair legs, and anything else within his reach
on a couple of numbers.) It's like Charlie Parker's approach to ballads,
when the great alto saxophonist would pump out a seemingly endless and
effortless stream of sixteenth notes over a slow tempo: a shimmering play of
light and movement that can swing gently while rippling by at an insane
pace. Norman's unaccompanied solos, of course, are even faster. Yet the
pulse is solid, even at the most furious tempos. Luttrell and Markus keep up
the blistering pace and even get in some lyrical solos of their own at six
beats a second.
by Robert Tate