Reggie Workman Working Man

Reflecting on a career spanning six decades, bassist Reggie Workman speaks with subdued restraint. Adding to a remarkable resumé, Workman's history of mentoring young jazz musicians led to a long-standing Associate Professorship of the New School yet, staring down 80, he's as busy as ever. "Yes, there's a lot going on. There always is," he mused.

Born in 1937, just outside of Philadelphia, Workman was ingrained in musical activity from early on. "Many musicians lived in that community," he explained. "Lee Morgan and I grew up together. Archie Shepp lived around the corner." Others in his immediate purview were Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, Mickey Roker, Donald Bailey and Bobby Green. Workman's father, a chef, owned a restaurant frequented by musicians who often visited the family home. The addition of a piano in their living room brought about an array of jam sessions. Jackie McLean was a regular when he played the area and after John Coltrane moved to Philadelphia, he too was drawn to the scene. "And Philly Joe Jones was a conductor on the trolley that passed the house," Workman said. "He sometimes stopped his car, faking mechanical problems, just to come in and say 'hello' to the fellows."

Through the visceral drive of the music, Workman's role became increasingly active. "Archie went to college at Goddard to study drama and I continued playing the streets. We didn't have universities to teach this; we sneaked into clubs. The Showboat and the Aqua Lounge hosted Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, they all came through. The bouncer at one of the clubs would let us in; he'd give us fruit punch and sit us in a dark corner." But by 1956, upon high school graduation, Workman began organizing performances. Once he took over the hearse his father used for deliveries, he could get to gigs out of town and transport the players. A first taste of success occurred when Workman joined the quartet of popular pianist-vocalist Freddy Cole, brother of Nat. "The music took me out of the brickyard and around the country. For me, this was also an education on the art of the ballad."

Performances with Cole centered on New York, so Workman moved his base to Harlem. "My evolution happened in New York. Many of the greats lived there. Gigi Gryce started hiring me regularly." Calls began coming in from Sun Ra, James Moody and Roswell Rudd. "I also played Minton's with Chick Corea and George Coleman and Babs Gonzales started hanging out uptown", which led to gigs with the bebop vocalist. "Then in 1958 Frank Gant and I went to San Francisco to work with Red Garland. It was a two-week gig we couldn't turn down due to his Miles association. Red wouldn't pay for plane tickets so we traveled by train." Quickly, Workman became established as a first-call bassist within the music's highest order. "Thelonious Monk was very particular about what happened on the bandstand and he expected the bass to be in a certain place, at a certain time, regardless. It was like school. That was difficult for me because I was used to a more open setting. The band's saxophonist Paul Jeffrey was a great help to me and Ed Blackwell too."

Increasingly busy -and aware of the rigors- Workman became a founder of a musicians' support and referral organization; however, the shadow of Jim Crow invaded the solidarity. "The group had conflicts because the black musicians had different problems than the white ones," Workman recalled. Collective Black Artists (CBA) grew from this reality. Artists including Amiri Baraka, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Owens, George Benson and Don Moore became central members. "We renovated a store front to make an office and organized classes taught by Leonard Goines and Owens. Our newspaper, Expansions, was filled with articles and poetry." CBA also recorded an EP dedicated to Muhammad Ali featuring Gonzales' vocals and ran a concert series at Town Hall with Ornette Coleman, Max Roach and Herbie Hancock among their features. Within Workman's tapestry, Coltrane stands out as a luminary. "It was 1961 and the band included McCoy, Elvin and Dolphy. I was working with Jaki Byard and Roy Haynes down the street from Coltrane's band and invited Eric to check us out. He brought John, but they left soon after, so I thought nothing of it. However, they were going on the road and John called to ask if I wanted in. I said: 'Is the Pope Catholic?" After stateside shows, Norman Granz paired the band with Dizzy Gillespie's for a European tour. "We boarded the plane together but John, Dizzy and Norman sat in first class. The rest of us rode coach...the salary was miniscule and we had to pay for our own hotel rooms. Meanwhile, Granz got a suite." However, the gig cemented a powerful relationship with Coltrane, then on the cusp of ascendency. "We recorded Africa Brass. So many great musicians were in Van Gelder's studio. Dolphy wrote voicings for the horns. Cal Massey did orchestration too." Olé Coltrane was out next and within a year Liv...

For a band whose moniker puts such emphasis on the number of its participants, another release featuring the core threesome of saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Andrew Cyrille has been a long time coming. Not since the outstanding Time Being (Intakt, 2007) in fact, with subsequent albums matching them with an eye catching parade of pianistic talent in Irene Schweizer, Geri Allen, Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer.

But once back to basics, they certainly make the most of the inherent opportunities. Looking back, you can see the attraction of having a pianist exploit pockets of space in the overall fabric, but by keeping intact the ambiguity such spaciousness confers, the rewards are even greater.

So much so that it's difficult to pick out the single collective piece from the six compositions contributed by individual band members. That's because often they merely sketch out the written material, which gives a delicious feel of hidden structure without revealing too much of how it's achieved.

Lake's "Bonu" offers just one case in point. After a wiry theme over cymbal splashes and resonant bass counterpoint, comes a sense of the three masters listening but not trying to stay on same path, like independent dancers choreographed in real time, creating a whole which is satisfyingly more than the disparate parts.

Each of the spectral constructs proves the product of consummate, often freeform, interplay. That ensures all the more impact when they do play it straight, as on the sole ringer, Ornette Coleman's "A Girl Named Rainbow." Here Lake forsakes his normal expressive use of timbre with gruff asides, squealing fusillades and querulous split tones, for a tender rendition full of false fingered notes which add emotional weight to what translates as a heartfelt tribute.

Elsewhere Cyrille induces his drums to talk, and even sport, on his unaccompanied dedication to Max Roach, "7 For Max," while Workman's taut bass forcefully cajoles and interjects, nowhere more so than on his title track, which also includes swooshing wind effects, bringing this splendid outing to a close.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/visiting-texture-trio-3-intakt-records-review-by-john-sharpe