John McNeil

Even though the roots of the music on John McNeil’s fine new East Coast Cool are readily apparent, the trumpeter probably deserves praise for not letting his most obvious influences manhandle him. As the title suggests, the New York–based bandleader is attempting to reconfigure what used to be called cool or West Coast jazz, the often-breezy bop most associated with the early pianoless quartets that brought baritone-saxist and arranger Gerry Mulligan together with trumpet idol Chet Baker. (Ironically enough, Mulligan got the style rolling, sans Chet, in midtown on 52nd Street before going west in the ’50s.) East Coast Cool shows that adding contemporary muscle to Mulligan’s ambling rhythms and close harmonies is quite a seductive formula.

Of course, because McNeil plays trumpet, he also understands that a key ingredient in Mulligan’s stew was  a hefty sax; here, reedist Allan Chase plays Mulligan to McNeil’s Chet. And it’s not just that most of the tunes are McNeil originals that makes the proceedings sound fresh. The snaky interplay between Chase and McNeil shifts easily from straitlaced four-beat swing into the modernism we expect of jazz since Ornette Coleman, and drummer Matt Wilson’s rhythms put pedal to metal—especially on the one ’50s selection, “Bernie’s Tune.” It’s not too far-fetched to think that if Mulligan were still here, he’d want a piece of all this.— K. Leander Williams

John McNeil Quartet with Bill McHenry plays Night and Day Restaurant Sun 5, Mar 12, Mar 19 and Mar 26.