By Owen Cordle, Correspondent
No one can accuse Raleigh saxophonist Will Scruggs of a lackadaisical performance. On “BlueBari Jam” (Summit), to be released Tuesday, the Enloe High School graduate, who holds music degrees from Emory University and Georgia State University, plunges into the music like a Swing Era tenor man bent on blowing the house down.
That’s what he does on “Swingin’ to the Left,” the opening track, a fast, riff-based melody over familiar chord changes.
Further down in the program, there’ll be a rowdy, speechlike performance, “Inside (The Realm of Possibility),” reminiscent of Charles Mingus. And then “Big B” comes along with a springy groove that recalls pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones of the classic John Coltrane Quartet. Later we hear “Willy’s Little Men,” a slow blues with guest guitarist Chris Duarte bending notes and getting soulful.
If you get the idea that this album is heavy on blues expression, you are right. Whether on tenor or baritone saxophone, Scruggs, who lives in Atlanta, partakes liberally of the tried-and-true blues vocabulary of growls, wide vibrato, pitch manipulation and slippery-versus-emphatic articulation. He knows the ropes.
The Fellowship rhythm section — pianist Brian Hogans, bassist Zack Pride and drummer Marlon Patton — shares Scruggs’ give-it-all attitude. On “Big B” Hogans pushes his solo to heroic proportions with driving runs and agile block chords. Pride exhibits a Mingus-like percussiveness and authority in his playing, and Patton fuels everything with a powerful beat. Guest trombonist Wes Funderburk augments a couple of tracks with robust playing. Guest guitarist Sid Wolf also appears.
The album’s one miscue is a smooth-jazz version of Peter Tosh’s “Till Your Well Runs Dry.” It would have been better to leave this performance off.