You probably know the work of alto saxophonist Phil Woods, even if you’re not familiar with his name. The jazz man is responsible for the melodic and romantic yet gritty solo on Billy Joel’s 1977 mega-hit “Just the Way You Are” (and Steely Dan’s “Doctor Wu,” too).
Saxophonist and flautist Greg Abate knows a lot more about Woods than just guest appearances on pop records. Woods was an inspiration to Abate, and the two men collaborated on albums and played many a gig together before Woods died in September last year, at 83.
“Kindred Spirits: Live At Chan’s” is the name of their final recording, and to celebrate the release of the double CD, Abate, whose nickname is “the prince of bebop,” will perform a local tribute to Woods.
He’ll be backed up by the Stephen Page Trio — Page on piano, George Kaye on acoustic bass and Steve Langone on drums — at the Iron Horse in Northampton Saturday at 7 p.m. Local group Juke Joint Jazz will start off the night.
Abate currently lives in Rhode Island but was born in Fall River. Woods was a Springfield native, and in the “Kindred Spirits” liner notes, Woods writes a short and sweet piece about his musical brother from Massachusetts. Its emphatic simplicity reads like a poem: “Playing with Greg Abate is like going home, straight ahead, take first chorus on the right, and you can’t miss it! Pilgrims can play! I should know! Homeboy am I.”
In an interview with Clubland last week, Abate remembered his first recording session with Woods in 2012; it was the first time he met his hero, who wasted no time: “He walked into the recording studio, took his horn out of the case and said, ‘Great to meet you, Greg. What’s the first tune?’”
“Woods was as no-nonsense as they come,” said Tom Reney, host of WFCR’s long-running radio show “Jazz a la Mode,” “so to be invited on the bandstand with him meant you’d achieved a comparable level of mastery as a player. And for Phil to engage with you at the level of playing multiple engagements and making records meant you’d earned his deepest respect.”
Reney, who once lived in the eastern part of the state, has known about Abate for decades, having heard him on bandstands before he began a recording career. Reney remembers how impressed he and his fellow jazz and R&B fans were in 1974 when they heard how Abate had succeeded David “Fathead” Newman in the Ray Charles Orchestra.
“[Abate] always stood out as a keeper of the flame, passionately dedicated to the rigors of modern jazz and the legacy of Charlie Parker in particular,” Reney said. “He still burns with an enthusiasm for the music that’s the truest mark of a dedicated player, because while Greg manages to work steadily in the States and in Europe, the grind is relentless. He’s a true journeyman player who manages against the odds to make playing jazz work as a livelihood.”
The “Kindred Spirits” two-CD set, recorded live at Chan’s in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, shows the hard work and inspiration paying off — according to Abate, the two alto sax men spoke on the phone before the show and decided to do it “without a net, no rehearsal and no sound check.”
The new live album spotlights not just joyous performances, but some of Woods’ colorful personality and commentary, like when he sings the praises of fried clams with bellies (and laments that no restaurant in his hometown seems to have them anymore), then sneaks in a joke. “I may be the greatest alto player in the country, but in the city … not so hot, y’know what I mean? Heh heh.” The audience is in stitches.
“I’m 82, but I have the body of an 81-year-old man,” Woods quips later in the record. You’d never know if not for the photos in the CD booklet, but he played the concert hooked up to oxygen, stopping when necessary for a “breath break,” a result of dealing with emphysema, which he told the crowd was “Mother Nature’s way of saying, ‘You been playing too many goddamn notes.’”
At one point in the show, Abate spaces on some names and apologizes to the crowd. “Playin’ a lot, the notes, the pressure makes your brain work weird when you’re blowing into the instrument, so I forget a lot of stuff,” Abate says, at which point Woods offers him his oxygen tube and says, “Ya want a hit? The first one’s free.” A wave of laughter surges from the crowd.
“His wit was unsurpassed and he was a wealth of knowledge, not only about the music, but of life,” Abate said. “He was a friend.”
To hear a recording of Greg Abate and Phil Woods playing “Moonlight In Vermont” (one of Woods’ favorite songs) from the album “Kindred Spirits,” visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP9Hj-b6wbs
Ken Maiuri can be reached at clublandcolumn@gmail.com.