Concert Review: Michael Benedict Jazz Vibes @ Schenectady Library, 04/15/2023

Right, EVERY month is the right time to appreciate jazz. 

The Schenectady-Amsterdam Musical Union and allied organizations sponsor an April-ful of free events across the region, including Michael Benedict’s Jazz Vibes Quartet Saturday in the wood-paneled, piano-equipped McChesney Room of the Schenectady County Library Hon. Karen B, Johnson Central Library.

This skilled, smart listening band’s hour-long free show might have been improved only by lengthening and moving it outdoors where spring finally sprung. Or is it summer? Either way, they played a spry “I Remember April.” But I digress.

Leader and vibes player Michael Benedict joked before they started that they had “rehearsed” for only 10 minutes – by talking about the tunes. I can verify this since several band members arrived only about that long before they hit it with Mercer Ellington’s “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.”

This short swing-then-sprints opener showed no more prep was needed, though the groove was looser at times than later. Benedict played the head over a smooth simmer cooked up as drummer Pete Sweeney, swinging brushes, then sticks, and always-in-the-pocket bassist Mike Lawrence locked in tight. Pianist Dave Gleason took over the lead from Benedict; then the transitions sped up as they all swapped fours before Benedict took it home.

He then credited the show’s sponsors and introduced the players – first to each other, which brought quiet laughs, then to us.

“Desifinado” followed, a bustling bossa, all movement and grace. Benedict waved a mallet to hand off the lead to Gleason once he’d had his say; in turn, Gleason glanced around to bring this boisterous number to a close.

All four guys are or have been teachers; both Gleason and Lawrence in Schenectady City Schools these days, Benedict retired from the band room after 25 years, and Sweeney is still teaching privately. So, the set list also comprised a lesson plan of sorts. After “Desifinado,” Benedict explained the mechanics of his vibraphone, demonstrating the sustain pedal (used mainly at slow tempos) and vibrato wings. 

But maybe the most compelling lesson of the afternoon was that when drummers (which Benedict also is) play other instruments, the rhythms really cook and come alive.

In the recently departed Wayne Shorter’s upbeat “Black Nile,” Benedict played first with two mallets introducing the theme, then in Gleason’s brisk solo, he reached for the first time for four mallets, comping hard; the tune gained muscle as if it had hit the gym. 

Here, the momentum of the whole set picked up audibly; even when they slowed to ballad pace for the first time in a sweet Bill Evans waltz. Benedict claimed, “It’s hard to play that slow,” but they made it look easy as ice cream. Gleason shone especially, proving what an elegant ballad stylist he is, and Sweeney used a heads-up cymbal roll under the solo hand-offs.

Next, they brought the funk – not that Evans’ “Waltz for Debbie” was solemn, exactly, but Lou Donaldson’s “Alligator Boogaloo” put on a mighty strut. They really had, and gave, fun with this one, launching from Sweeney’s fractured-march intro into bumping solos, Lawrence switching to electric bass for a bolder punch and everybody happy to stretch the ending. 

Citing the calendar, Benedict shook up the setlist to Errol Garner’s “I’ll Remember April” in a high-flying bossa that held the happy mood as Benedict again doubled up with four mallets before an easy, amiable fade.

Lesson time again: Benedict and Gleason tag-teamed an explanation of how beboppers copped and improvised on chord changes when a strike prevented straight-up song renditions. 

So, first they played the Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke chestnut “It Could Happen to You” in pretty conventional fashion. Then they jumped without pause into Dexter Gordon’s bebop mutation of its chords in “Fried Bananas.” They soloed and then brought the lesson home as Benedict played the former, source tune while Gleason chimed in simultaneously with the bebop version. It all worked, it was all clear and fast-moving as a mountain stream, and they ended together, feigning surprise.

Benedict didn’t introduce their closer, Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va,” but he didn’t have to. Chair-dancing happened all over the place. Benedict heated things up with a hypnotically simple repeating-phrase solo that Sweeney echoed in his own bust-out, while Gleason’s aggressive phrasing brought the fire, too. 

Not a bad crowd, either – for a perfect afternoon; and diverse as a Music Haven audience.

The Schenectady-Amsterdam Musical Union Local 85133 AFM sponsors numerous Jazz Appreciation Month free shows in the coming weeks, including a second presentation at the Schenectady County Public Library. On Tuesday, April 24, “Jazz & The Written Word: A Concert” pairs singer Kaitlyn Fay with The Most Jazzy Fellows in a program of standards guided by readings from the Hudson Valley Writers Guild President Thom Francis. 

See https://www.facebook.com/afm85.133/ for additional info and listings of Jazz Appreciation Month events in other venues.