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Photo by Dennis Keeley

Nothing but the Swingers: Black/Note at the ready

L.A.'s jazzy Black/Note swings out of the past

By Nicky Baxter

The Ajax Lounge was hot, crowded and choked with cigarette smoke on a hot Saturday night two years ago; the elbow-room-only attraction was the L.A.-based quintet Black/Note. It's hardly surprising that the ensemble--bassist Mark Shelby, alto saxophonist James Mahone, pianist Art Sano, trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and drummer Willie Jones III--has proven so popular in the South Bay. Black/Note rendered its brand of straight-ahead jazz meticulously that evening.

Although the group's reverence for crisply played hard bebop a la mid-'60s Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers fits predictably into jazz's Wynton Marsalis-helmed neocon movement, the band members are unapologetic about their choice of material. What Black/Note lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in conviction.

The opening tune that night featured Castellano's cool, Milesian trumpet followed by Mahone's smoky alto sax. Mahone's playing was deliberate, almost careful, as he traversed familiar territory--a hint of Sonny Rollins here, a nod to middle-period John Coltrane modalism there.

Jones supplied the sweat, wielding his sticks with ferocious drive. Shelby, the group's leader, was by contrast a study in detached concentration. Inscrutable yet fascinating, he used his upright bass to anchor the music even as he embellished it with little nuances the audience had to listen for very closely to appreciate. Sano's piano was meaty-sounding without being intrusive, reminiscent of a slightly subdued McCoy Tyner.

Midway through the first set, Black/Note, whose playing up to that point had evinced an icy precision, ratcheted up its intensity level a notch or two. The performance swung with old-school vigor and, dare it be said, soul.

The Black/Note saga began about six years ago. Inspired by a Wynton Marsalis performance, Shelby migrated from San Luis Obispo to L.A. in pursuit of his newly awakened muse. "What I wanted was a scene," Shelby tells me. When an associate advised him to look up drummer Billy Higgins, Shelby found what he was looking for.

The then-nascent "scene" happened to be located in L.A.'s storied South Central district, the hub of which was a work shop/ recording studio/performance space called the World Stage. This unprepossessing musicians' hangout was operated by the legendary Higgins, an enduring and ardent champion of improvisational music. In addition to offering a place for young jazz acolytes to blow, Higgins was and is actively engaged in mentoring L.A. jazz's next generation--including Mark Shelby and his eventual partners in Black/Note.

"[Higgins] hooked me up with a key to his studio at the World Stage," recalls the bassist, now in his early 30s. Regarding his bandmates, Shelby says, "It was an act of God; these guys just came to me. I didn't put any ads out or anything. It all came together in a four-month period. We rehearsed eight hours every day for four months."

The next two years witnessed continued woodshedding, scattered gigs and a recording session. The album from that session, 43rd and Degnan (World Stage), prompted major-label interest.

Black/Note's 1994 major-label debut, cheekily titled Jungle Music, is a solid if unspectacular outing. Curiously, the set is prefaced by a familiar Malcolm X exhortation for the melaninated masses to "stop singin' and start swingin'," which Black/Note manages to do intermittently.

Certainly, there's nothing "militant" about this music. The compositions on Jungle Music, most of which were written by Shelby, range from the meditative bluesy mood of the ballads (Shelby's "Elizabeth Brown") to the extroverted muscularity of the title tune. Jungle Music is wholly comprised of originals, but they come in the guise of standards. The emphasis is on group improvisation rather than individual grandstanding, and it is plain that everyone present knows his instrument.

With countless gigs here and abroad and a couple of well-received CDs, Black/Note continues to look to the past for sonic sustenance. Due out this April is Nothing but the Swing (GRP). Says Shelby of the new album, "We're just still trying to bring young people to the music. We want to bring the spirit of rap, acid jazz--all that stuff--to mainstream jazz."

Shelby terms what his unit does "swing," but his idea of swing is a long way from Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. Black/Note is onto a different notion--something old, no doubt, but brimming over with new juice.

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Black/Note plays Saturday (March 2) at 9pm at Gordon Biersch, 33 E. San Fernando St., San Jose.


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