MONTREAL JAZZ REUNION
25 years on, sax titan Steve Grossman on tour with old band
In the annals of Montreal jazz, some of the most storied gigs of the late 1980s were when New York saxophonist Steve Grossman came to town.
It wasn’t just that the powerful hornman had burst onto jazz at the highest level almost two decades earlier, playing while a teenager with Miles Davis and soon after with drummer Elvin Jones. Or that he was revered by world-class peers such as saxophonist David Liebman, who has said of Grossman: “All of us acknowledged that he was the best of us.”
The Grossman gigs in Montreal were also special because he used local musicians as accompanists — pianist Fred Henke, bassist Ron Séguin and drummer André White. Moreover, Grossman enjoyed playing with the Montrealers so much that after he moved to Italy, he recruited them to play and tour with him there.
Those jazz escapades took place more than 25 years ago. But this month, Grossman, only recently returned to the U.S., is reuniting with the Montrealers to play a small tour that will bring them Monday night to Gatineau’s Les Brasseurs du Temps.
Ottawa-raised bassist Séguin and drummer White, now seasoned veterans on Montreal’s jazz scene, tell Peter Hum about their past and present exploits with Grossman. Q: How did this reunion happen?
Ron Séguin: When I found out that Steve, after having lived in Italy for close to 30 years, had decided to go back to New York, I contacted him about the tour. Right away he said yes. I think he enjoyed the time we had played together in Italy and I imagine he still had good memories. He sounded very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Q: What are your memories of the Italian tour? Ron Séguin: The tour happened because Fred, André and myself had gotten to play with Steve in Montreal on a couple of occasions before he decided to move to Italy. Steve was living about 50 kilometres south of Rome, where there was one of the best jazz clubs in the region where many international artists came to play. We got the call from Steve to join him, which was for a few months to play in this club, Bird Lives, and tour Italy. Getting to spend that time with Steve, who as we all know is a monster player, was an amazing experience. We were playing five nights a week. The trio also got to back up various Italian and international musicians, which really kept us in top form. Playing at a higher level gave us an amazing amount of experience and satisfaction — a dream come true André White: It was the first time I’d been asked to tour with a big-time jazz person, and I was very excited. It was also great that I was doing it with Ron and Fred, because we had gotten something going with (Montreal guitarist) Sonny Greenwich. Italy was an incredibly beautiful place, the food and the beautiful women were overwhelming, and the Fellini-esque atmosphere of daily life was exhausting and exhilarating. I found it difficult at first because Steve was playing very long solos, and it was hard to keep the energy up and make the music happen. At one point he and I got into a heated argument. We were both screaming at each other in the middle of this restaurant in Rome and people were wondering what the hell was going on. Later Steve explained to me that he was working on some stuff he’d been trying to get to for a long time. Even though I wasn’t musically ready yet to process what he was saying, what he was talking about resonated with me for years. I began to hear things differently, after a lot of listening to the (John) Coltrane quartet, and after playing more with Sonny, and I began to pace myself better and see the big picture a little better. Q: What do you think of Steve Grossman? André White: He’s unique, very gifted musically, and better at communicating through his improvising than talking about the music. But if I look back on all the people I’ve played with, the two I played with around that time, Sonny and Steve, taught me through their example about playing powerfully and reacting quickly and listening and concentrating and reaching for things, and those lessons have stayed with me and helped me on every gig since. It was my dream to play again with Steve once more and I was planning to go to Italy to do just that. So to have this gig is really a big deal for me. Q: How do you think it will feel for this quartet to play again after so many years? André White: I don’t have any expectations, except that I will play better than I used to, a little more consistently, maybe a little wiser. I hope that we all come out of this treasuring the experience. I hope Steve will realize on the bandstand that I listened carefully and thought a lot about what he played and that he’ll enjoy that. Ron Séguin: I can only say “Wow!” We are all really looking forward to doing this and I hope we get to do a lot more in the future.