There comes a time in an artist’s life when the pendulum swings, and the hard work and dogged pursuit of excellence forged over many years begins to bear fruit. With mid-career in the rear view mirror, the accumulation of credits and accomplishments becomes so impressive, the time left so precious, that respect, and maybe even a few accolades, begin to pour in. Such is the case with Joseph Daley, the 75-year old low brass player whose performance on October 6 at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield was a study in power and restraint.
Accompanied by bassist Ken Filiano and guitarist Shu Odamura, Daley debuted his Tonal Colors Trio on Sunday for a Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares audience of 50. Playing tuba, euphonium, piano and wood flute, Daley led the ensemble in an evening of bracing and elegiac music.
The first half of the concert featured an open floor plan, mostly non-metered and harmonically free with textures galore. Filiano and Daley, playing tuba, inhabited a similar nether world of bottom friendly sound, with Odamura’s shimmering guitar floating on top. The music, while untethered, nevertheless had a certain momentum, propelling us through uncharted soundscapes. This approach, never settled but not unsettling, was peppered with short sections of intricately written material that seemed to come out of nowhere, nailed with precision.
The second half of the program was highlighted by a gorgeous rendition of Don Pullen’s “Ode To Life”, that jumped off the stage with a beauty that made us gasp. Why this composition has not become a modern jazz standard is beyond me. Pullen’s piece was brilliantly juxtaposed with an equally beautiful Daley original dedicated to his late wife, Wanda. Daley has written a number of works in honor of his wife and he includes at least one during every live performance. Odamura told me later that he was not familiar with the composition, but once he figured out what key it was written in, was able to acquit himself quite convincingly.
Odamura was born in Kyoto, Japan and moved to the U.S. in 2006 to attend the Berklee School of Music on scholarship. He’s been living in New York since 2009, including five years in my old stomping grounds of Woodside, Queens. Affable, humble and a monster player, Odamura had a clean ringing sound and an approach that was devoid of grandstanding and excessive volume. Perhaps his extensive experience making music for theater, including over a decade as musical director for Watoku Ueno’s shadow puppetry group, explains the guitarist’s ability to fit in and serve the music.
Filiano was his usual commanding self. The great bass player has been a regular and welcome presence at recent Jazz Shares events, enhancing bands led by Anders Griffen, Taylor Ho Bynum and Jeff Cosgrove in the last couple of years. This time Filiano employed an array of pedals and electronic effects to enhance his sound. Watching him manipulate his devices was a bit distracting, but when I closed my eyes and focused only on auditory information, the bent, swooped world he created opened up vistas. Combined with his patented vocalizations and the knitting needles he wove between his bass strings, Filiano embodied the band’s name: tonal colors, indeed.
Regal yet relaxed in his stocking feet and beautiful print tunic, Joseph Daley seemed cut from African royalty. Obscured behind a music stand and his large coil of brass, Daley controlled the proceedings with a light but confident touch. Appearing almost two years to the day since his Jazz Shares debut with Reggie Nicholson’s Brass Concept, Daley celebrated his 75th circumnavigation of the sun by leading his trio in a masterful display of improvisatory spirit. After a good run on tuba, Daley moved to the smaller, nimbler euphonium, a cousin to the baritone horn, my instrument of choice through middle and high school. The baritone, Daley explained, has a cylindrical bore, meaning that the tubing is a uniform diameter throughout most of the instrument. The euphonium on the other hand, has conical tubing, it gets larger as it moves from mouthpiece to bell. Explained like the consummate public school teacher he was.
Daley has also been the consummate side man over his illustrious 50 year career. I know him from his ground breaking stint with Sam River’s Trio, as well as his work with Taj Mahal, Howard Johnson’s tuba-heavy outfit, Gravity, and the big bands of Gil Evans, Charlie Haden and Carla Bley. I first met him in 2015, when he (and Filiano) performed with Jason Kao Hwang’s genre-straddling project, Burning Bridge, as part of the UMass Magic Triangle Jazz Series. But Daley is also a first rate composer and arranger. Do yourself a favor and check out his brilliant 2011 opus, The Seven Deadly Sins, and his 2013 follow up, The Seven Heavenly Virtues, both featuring his orchestral Earth Tones Ensemble.
Late in the concert Daley played piano and a Native American wood flute, which moved things in a spiritual direction and lightened up the evening’s dark sonorities. It was the perfect coda to a night of adventure and exploration, and served as an invitation to delve deeper into the remarkable career of Joseph Daley.