Monk's Main Man Plays Louisville

Saxophonist Charlie Rouse Delivers Some Hot Jazz

The weather was frigid last night, but during tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse’s concert at Downstairs at Actors it was Le Jazz Hot.

The concert put Rouse, best know for the years he spent from 1959 to 1970 as a member of the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk’s Quartet, together with a rhythm section composed of some of this area’s finest jazz musicians. It’s hard to say who played better, Rouse or the local boys.

One of the problems that besets traveling jazz solo acts is they must depend on local musicians to accompany them. Sometimes the musicians or good, and sometimes they’re bad. Last night’s players - pianist Ray Johnson, bassist Mark McCulloch and drummer Jonathan Higgins were more than good they were excellent.

Johnson, who spent 20 years as a jazz pianist in New York City before returning to his hometown of Louisville a few years ago, got things going with a driving rendition of Charlie Parker’s “Billies Bounce.” McCulloch held things together with a solid bass line and drummer Higgins poured on the steam.

When Rouse came on stage for the first number, “What is this Thing Called Love,” the air was already charged with excitement he added even more by rushing through the song’s chord changes and interjecting his own unique musical ideas. Johnson came up from behind playing like a mad man on several smoking choruses, McCulloch and Higgins followed with good solos.

And it went on like that throughout the concert on a string of Monk standards like “Bolivar Blues,” “Light Blue” and “Straight No Chaser.” Rouse would state the theme, play the first couple of choruses and then turn it over to Johnson, who would take the song apart and put it back together, being careful to throw in a few Monk-like licks of his own.

Only once, on a standard “Lover Man,” did Rouse fail to deliver. On this song the tenor star had some intonation problems that caused him to play sharp through most of the piece.

But he made up for this infraction with a fireball version of “Straight No Chaser” that showcased his jagged phrasing and gruff tone. Johnson was particularly exciting on this song, bouncing up and down as his fingers raced along the keyboard. Bassist McCulloch also played a fine solo on this tune, which gained a laugh of recognition from leader Rouse and a round of applause from the audience.

After an intermission, Rouse and the band came back with an imaginative jazz line based on the chord changes of the standard “Out of Nowhere.” By this time the saxophonist was really getting loose, biting off huge chunks of changes and molding them to fit his peculiar taste and style.

The only problem with last night’s concert was that Rouse is the third saxophonist in less than a year to be featured in concert by the Louisville Jazz Society. It would be nice to see the society bring in some jazz vocalists like Sheila Jordan, Ben Sidran or Mark Murphy. After all, diversity is what jazz is all about.

Danny O’Bryan
The Louisville Times
January 28, 1986

From the up-coming book “Derby City Jazz.”