LIVE: Keith Pray Or-Tet (with Brian Patneaude) @ Jazz On Jay, 07/07/2022

One of the perks of ditching the Day Job has been attending events that happened while I was chained to my cubicle in downtown Albany. Last Thursday was my second visit to Jazz On Jay, but I was already addicted – not only to the great music and convivial atmosphere but also to the half-sour pickles at The Dilly Bean, just one of many marvelous merchants that make up the Jay Street Marketplace. Hey, simple pleasures, amirite???

This time out, the music was provided by the Keith Pray Or-Tet, featuring Pray’s colleague and contemporary, tenorman Brian Patneaude. Pray & Patneaude were just starting to establish themselves on the scene when I started writing about Greater Nippertown jazz in 2005. Now the two reed wizards are Elder Statemen, with Pray switching from alto to organ for his most recent release Down The Middle, and their longtime collaboration in various groups has helped create an adamantine chemistry that made it sound like the Or-Tet had been gigging together for years.

Pray got things going with the original “The Calling”, letting Patneaude step out for the opening solo, which started out smooth as creamy peanut butter. That familiar sound made everyone smile, and then Patneaude kicked it up two or three notches and started showing off the high end of his towering range. That set the table for Mike Novakowski to hit us with some classic hollow-body guitar, and then Pray got to show us how far he’s come in the few years he’s been building his keyboard chops.

Pray may not be John Medeski at this stage of his development, but then in this format, he doesn’t need to be. He’s intimately familiar with the sax/organ format, going back to his first release One Last Stop, and all his solos show he’s been listening to elders like Dr. Lonnie Smith, Larry Young and Jimmy Smith. The latter icon was the inspiration for Pray’s dancing original “Jimmy’s Blues”, and you could hear the funky history of jazz organ in all Pray’s originals and in hot takes on Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower” and James Brown’s “Aint It Funky.” Pray also preceded his original “Looking In” with a sweet meditation.

Like the seasoned leader he is, Pray gave all his people the platform and undertones they needed to do good business. He and Patneaude flew textbook formation on the opening to “Little Sunflower” and harmonized beautifully on Pray’s own “Slow Down Sam.” Drummer Chad Ploss was rock-solid throughout the gig, and Novakowski turned out one smoking solo after another, keeping the crowd lining the Marketplace grinning, laughing, and dancing.

While I think Down The Middle is one of the best local releases of the year, I’ll admit I miss Pray’s fire on alto sax. That said, Keith gets major props for stepping outside his comfort zone and should be congratulated for hitting it out of the park on his first attempt at an organ-based release. The music is both inspiring and intelligent, and it sounds amazing live, especially when a sharp reed wizard-like Patneaude joins the party.

My last Jazz On Jay review was of the Arch Stanton Quartet, who just played a sweet gig outside of Troy Music Hall this past Friday night. It was a bittersweet performance, though, as it was announced that Steven Partyka – the drummer on both of ASQ’s releases – died of a heart attack last weekend. Steve was a great drummer and a major contributor to the Stanton Quartet’s “garage-band jazz” sound. My heartfelt condolences to his family and his former band members, all of whom were feeling the loss Friday evening. Hug the ones you love every day because this can all end before you can say, “Wait a minute…”

Photo Gallery by Albert Brooks