Chicago saxophonist Chris Greene has made a career of following his musical instincts wherever they lead, crossing the boundary lines of musical genres with his imagination as his passport. For nearly 15 years, with only a single change in personnel, he’s been aided and abetted by his quartet colleagues—Albuquerque native Damian Espinosa (piano, keyboards), Marc Piane (bass), and Steve Corley (drums). That continuity of personnel allows the quartet to function with what seems like a single brain, and they’ll be exercising that brain this week at two concerts in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and Corrales.
Chris Greene notes that all of the musicians who have had the greatest influence on him—and here he reels off the names of Miles Davis, Prince, James Brown, Steve Coleman, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk—share one common characteristic: “They all had bands. They all had working bands that they could—day in/day out, week in/week out—try out material in front of a live audience,” he says. “They’d get that grit that comes from playing in front of a live audience.”
Greene took that model and ran with it, keeping in mind Dizzy Gillespie’s formula: “The best way to keep a working band is to keep a band working.” Members may have stuck around initially because they liked the steady work, he says, but they ended up staying for different reasons.
First of all, Greene welcomes and appreciates their contributions, compositionally and otherwise. “It’s a truly collaborative effort,” says Greene. “Everybody in the band is so creative, so that helps with keeping things fresh.
Second, keeping things fresh is a Greene specialty, and that makes it just plain fun to play in the quartet. His willingness to try anything is refreshing, and his guideposts appear to be “What if?” and “Why not?” So you get Horace Silver’s jazz standard “Nica’s Dream” in a reggae arrangement on the most recent studio album, 2017’s Boundary Issues, which also includes post-bop explorations on the harmonic edges (Espinosa’s “Thunder Snow”) and a blues shuffle, Greene’s “Blues for Dr. Fear,” whose rollicking rhythmic is sprung loose by the deletion of a third of a beat in the head.
Greene says that all the members are continually checking out different kinds of music to see “what can we steal from” to develop fresh material and arrangements. “How do we make it fun for us and interesting for the audience.”
The quartet appears to have handily solved that problem judging from its most recent live release, 2019’s PlaySPACE. The synch between band members on this release is palpable—especially that between Greene and Espinosa, whom Greene calls the band’s “secret sauce,” noting his tremendous harmonic knowledge and breadth of talent. “But also he listens to what’s going on better than any piano player that you will ever play with,” says Greene.
On PlaySPACE, you can hear that listening with special clarity on Piane’s deeply hip and mysterious tune “Clean and Clear.” Espinosa, deeply in synch with Greene, finds just what each moment needs—like the blizzard of block chords that elevates the track near the end. On Boundary Issues, the duet between Greene, on soprano, and Espinosa on Billy Strayhorn’s beautiful tune “Day Dream” offers another example of Espinosa’s receptivity and his ability to shape a performance’s architecture.
Greene’s sound on tenor has a distinctive burn. That sound, along with a hard-to-define vibe in the quartet’s performance, made me wonder if there is such a thing as a Chicago sound. Greene notes that Chicago has a strong tenor saxophone tradition, and he points out that several of the tenor’s most distinctive Chicago voices— Gene Ammons, Von Freeman, John Gilmore, Johnny Griffin, Eddie Harris, Clifford Jordan—all studied under the same band director at DuSable High School: Captain Walter Henri Dyett.
As for that hard-to-define vibe, Greene notes that Chicago is known for blues, house music, both mainstream and avant-garde jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and more. Musicians in the city move freely from one genre to another on their gigs, bringing to their own music elements of each. On top of that, the great African American migration up from the Deep South to Chicago brought with it elements that were laid into the foundation of the Chicago music scene.
“It’s kind of hard to put your finger on it, but [Chicago musicians] definitely have a palpable vibe when we play,” says Greene.
You can check that vibe out at two upcoming concerts: on Saturday, in Los Ranchos, at a fundraiser for the Music in Schools program, serving schools in Corrales and Los Ranchos; and a Sunday concert in Corrales at the Old San Ysidro Church.
Chris Greene Quartet
Fundraiser for Music in Schools
Saturday, October 19, 3:00 p.m.
Alfredo García Community Barn
Just south of the Village Hall (6718 Rio Grande Blvd.)
Los Ranchos de Albuquerque
Tickets: $25 general admission
Available here.
Chris Greene Quartet
Sunday, October 20, 3:00 p.m.
Old San Ysidro Church
966 Old Church Road, Corrales
The Sunday concert is sold out. However, a limited number of tickets are frequently available at the door due to ticket holders who are unable to attend. A waiting list will be started at 2:00 p.m. at the church, and tickets will be made available for as many seats as are unoccupied at 2:50 p.m.
© 2019 Mel Minter