Pros: An excellent quartet. Brilliant sax and guitar. Strong support. Half of the selections are original.
Cons: One or two of the pieces may need further work.
The Bottom Line: THE POWER OF TWO by The Jazz Obsession Quartet gives the World evidence of a new talented group on the Chicago music scene. Leader saxguy has a deal for you!
macresarf1's Full Review: The Power of Two * by John Temmerman
llinois-born and bred, Jazz Saxophonist John Temmerman has done what a lot of talented artists do now. He has formed a company to handle his work. The result is THE POWER OF TWO, a CD of recent work by his Jazz Obsession Quartet, containing 12 cuts, half of them written by Temmerman himself, a generous 67 minutes of pleasantly cool music.
Many of us here in the Epinions Community know John by his handle: Saxguy. Proudly holding his horn, he looks out at us from his picture with an ample, friendly, Chicago kind of face. (He reminds me of my old Army buddy, Albert Albrecht, an aged beef butcher from Cicero.) We know him as a sensitive writer and reader of epinions. We may never have had evidence of how good a musician he is. How compelling the work of The Jazz Obsession Quartet might be. THE POWER OF TWO provides that evidence. For us and potentially for a World Wide public.
Temmerman, now in his prime, has been interested in Jazz since high school, first playing clarinet, then the alto saxophone. Inspired by the famous Chicago Jazz Tradition, John knew he loved the sax. He attended the University of Illinois, dabbling in music as a minor, and attending summer programs like one offered at the Berklee School of Music in Boston in 1974. He completed his degree, became a CPA, and went to work as an accountant in 1977. He continued to play in semi-pro bands on the side, but trailed off when he undertook study at night for an MBA degree at the University of Chicago in 1980.
Ten years passed.
One day Temmerman brought his faithful but increasingly neglected alto sax in for appraisal. Satan leapt up as John learned that the instrument, an increasingly rare model, was worth three times what he paid for it. Married by then, father of a son, successful in the business area, he had responsibilities which music took him away from. It was make or break time. He was in a common dilemma for an American artist. If he sold the sax, his dream of being a professional musician was dead.
Temmerman kept the horn.
In his mid-30's, John had switched to tenor sax, his "most natural instrument," playing in community college jazz bands at music festivals, in and around Chicago. At one of these, a top local sax player, Mark Colby, acting as a judge, made note of him. Main Chance, it will perhaps seem in retrospect, Colby, on staff at DePaul Music School (near Children's Memorial Hospital where John worked), offered to tutor him, forming a relationship which lasted five years.
By the early 1990's, Temmerman was leading both a trio and a quartet, acting as a music director for a vocalist, and teaching instrumental music to others. His business career continued to prosper, too, as in 1997 he became controller for one of the largest traditional Protestant organizations in America. Trained in Social Work (another Chicago tradition), his wife Tina, whom he describes as "a woman of great intellect and courage," devoted herself to their son, Joe, now a junior in high school.
In 1995, his trio made a cassette, which was successful, leading to new gigs in the Chicago area, and in the late 1990's to the forming of The Jazz Obsession Quartet.
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Temmerman's partners in the Quartet are:
DRUMS -- Rusty Jones, who toured with George Shearing for six years, and is described by John as "one of the top drummers in Chicago for years." He certainly has the mark of a good jazz drummer, in that he is not heard obviously, unless he needs to be.
ELECTRIC BASS -- Steven Hashimoto. Through the father of one of his son's friends, John met Steve. He is another musician who knows how to support rather than dominate a number. He has his own CD now, GIRI, on Asian Improv Records.
GUITAR -- Neal Alger. Looking at the picture of the quartet in the CD's liner notes, one would guess that Neal is the youngest of the group. In his late 20's, he started with the Peace Corps, traveled Africa as part of a trio, and he has toured recently with Patricia Barber. His CD -- HERE AND NOW, THERE AND BEFORE -- has just appeared. The rapport, the musical give and take, between him and Temmerman is palpable on this CD.
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The selections for THE POWER OF TWO begin with an adaptation of the Miles Davis classic "All Blues" (8:00) to the Quartet's instruments. The blues waltz begins with Alger's guitar, soon picked up by Temmerman's sax, in a languorous mood -- Rusty Jones drums subtly under. Toward mid-point, the guitar and sax engage in a delightful counter point. Alger has a riff. The electric base comes up, and Temmerman finishes the piece off.
"Costa Del Sol" (6: 36): This is a variation based on a rhythmic Bossa Nova by Nobuo Uematsu. Temmerman credits his son, Joe, for bringing his attention to the Final Fantasy Play Station Game, which features the piece. A favorite cut of mine on the album, the music's dance beat brings all the players together in the beginning. The Latin theme is developed in progressions of drums and guitar. Temmerman's sax comes up, and Alger's guitar plays back and forth with him until Temmerman provides an assertive conclusion. His preference for cadenzas is evident in this number and most of the others.
"The Power of Two" (3:22), Temmerman's post Bop title piece feels like a hymn to either his relationship to Tina, to Tina and Joe, to the power of music -- perhaps all three. The guitar plays with the drums in a progression. The composition carries over from the last piece a Latin quality, mixed with soul, but the development lacks structure, I think. I'm sorry to report that it struck me the least successful effort on the CD. Temmerman ends it with the cut off of his sax on a rising note.
"Slam Time" (5:25) lives up to its title. Temmerman and Rusty Jones' drums plow into this vigorous piece of Funk. Alger's guitar and Hashimoto's bass register near the middle, and Temmerman drives his composition to its end.
"Whispering Pines" by Wayne Henderson (5:15): Drawn from the old Crusader's album, SOUTHERN COMFORT, this series of Fusion variations by The Jazz Obsession Quartet has a Modal Latin quality, which tends to cycle duels between a high ranging Temmerman and Alger's limpid guitar throughout.
"Nice and Easy"by Lew Spence, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith (5:14): Known from its arrangements for Frank Sinatra and others, "Nice and Easy" is the best known theme dealt with by the Quartet. Here, Temmerman carries the ballad's melody strongly. Once again, Alger's progressions take over for a time before the return of the saxophone at the finish, the strings countering underneath.
Max Bennett's "T. C. B. in C" (5:14), first featured as a theme song for the 1974 Movie, THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT, and here, aided by the contribution of a lead sheet by Music Director Tom Scott, who arranged it for Wheel of Fortune (and recently recorded it), the Quartet really takes care of business. Steve Hashimoto's electric bass comes to the fore in a Fusion-Rock statement. Temmerman plays off the bass, is displaced by the guitar, but returns at the end.
"Plan B" (4:54) is Temmerman's revision of a melody he created in college. It is a warm summer night nocturne. His saxophone lays out the melody sensuously in the first half, and the guitar, then the base enter. Temmerman returns with a water-like riff, rising in a nice grace note to the finish. I find "Plan B" impressive, and it is my favorite cut on the album.
In the pulsing blues of his "Slick Color" (4:05), Temmerman allows modulations for Hashimoto's bass and Alger's guitar. He briefly pauses to give Rusty Jones a solo on the drums, and finishes up strongly.
"When the Lights Go Out" by Mike Lawrence (4:51) was featured on the MANGO TANGO album of Mark Colby. Following the lead sheet provided by his friend and mentor Colby, Temmerman renders the stunning melody in a truly beautiful solo on his sax. This fusion ballad is another standout cut.
"Secondary Ignorance" (6:01) draws its title, as Temmerman explains in his Epinion, "The Soundtrack of My Life" (http//http://www.epinions.com/content_:2537791620), from a friend's observation that "people are not aware of what they don’t know and it makes them doubly dangerous in a work setting." It is another work which Temmerman has developed over time, becoming gradually able to transcribe it in a fashion to his satisfaction. His growth as a musician is easily gauged here by this full onslaught of bass and drums, transmuted by Temmerman's questioning horn into full modal flow. It is joined by a Latin guitar and moves in cut-time between sax and drums to its conclusion.
Finally, "Come to the Table" (7:01) represents Temmerman's strong spirituality, his links to Christianity in both his personal life and in his career. He takes the old hymn "One Bread, One Body," and by shifting the chord changes, creates what he modestly terms a "jazz shuffle." Alger's guitar leads this ambitious piece, proceeds against Hashimoto's bass, emerges in a solo -- and finishes in an alternation and eventual fusion of all the instruments. Very strong, a credit to Temmerman and the group.
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THE POWER OF TWO CD, announced on its jewel case by Paula Gibby's Dali-esque illustration from her *Blue Rose Tarot, promises an Adventure in Music. It represents for John Temmerman a 25 year dream of realizing a musical career. THE POWER OF TWO fulfills the promise and the dream. He is on his way to recognition.
I urge you to go to his profile page, listen to some excerpts from the album, and then, if you appreciate his Jazz as much as I do, please seek it out and buy it. John has a special and generous discount for Epinions members:
Although the fact would not cloud my perception, I am pleased that John Temmerman and I belong to each other's Webs of Trust.
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*The Blue Rose, rooted in Eastern myth and lore, also symbolizes the power of belief in modern works so diverse as Michael Powell's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1939) and Tennessee William's play, THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
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