Fallen Angel: review

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Bob Sneider released two new CD's this year, both on Sons of Sound records. He teamed up with Paul Hofmann on Escapade and he joined with Joe Locke in The Bob Sneider Joe Locke Film Noir Project: Fallen Angel. With these two projects Bob Sneider expresses two sides of jazz. Escapade is a duet with pianist Paul Hoffman (a follow-up to there 2004 release: Interconnection) is chamber jazz at its finest, demonstrating with eloquence that jazz is a serious musical idiom. With Fallen Angel we change from day to night and from the concert hall to the smoky basement jazz club, evoking the unforgiving dark underbelly of urban life. Teaming Sneider's guitar with the haunting sound of Locke's vibraphone and a killer combo defines the dark mood and sets an emotional hook. Both CD's are highly recommended.

Escapade, the second collaboration from Bob Snider and Paul Hofmann, has found its' way into my CD player over and over again. It reminds me so much of Jim Hall and Bill Evans masterpiece, Undercurrent, which is considered one of the best jazz recordings of all time and certainly the finest example of jazz piano/guitar duo performance. Escapade approaches this with a very similar sound, especially evident on "My Funny Valentine" the only tune these two records have in common. The rest of Escapade is most original compositions by Hofmann and Sneider that reveal a deep understanding of harmony and form. The music varies in intensity, rhythm and density with many surprises and clever turns, with several quotes from classic and baroque music. The interplay between Sneider and Hoffman reveals a musical relationship based on a desire to create beauty along with common respect and trust in the ability of the other.

The Film Noir Project includes Bob Sneider on guitar, Joe Locke on vibes, Bob's brother John Sneider on trumpet, Grant Stewart on tenor, Paul Hofmann on piano, Phil Flanigan on bass, and Mike Melito on drums. In Fallen Angel Bob Sneider with Joe Locke lead a solid septet though film tunes, the title tune written by Joe Locke, and "The Last Kiss" written by Paul Hofmann. It is a concept project that hits its mark with a stylized 1940's sensibility, but subtle solos and post-bop harmonies keep it from being nostalgic reenactment. From the opening track, Locke's "Fallen Angel", we get a sense of sadness in the melody on the vibes while Hoffman provides a relentless supporting vamp that subtly drives the song forward with a sense of inevitability. Evocative throughout, it's easy to imagine a black-and-white rain soaked city street, a pool hall and a mysterious woman who looks too good to be anything but trouble. I guess the point is this is music to listen to. The mood is there, but the musicianship is too. Bob Sneider adopts a grittier style, but his tone is still sweet and pure. Locke delivers the goods again and again on vibes throughout this project along with the solid band on material that in less skilled hands could've turned out like so many tired film scores. Throughout Fallen Angel the combination of guitar, piano and vibraphone blend surprisingly well and provide a rich blanket of sound in these great arrangements. Dave Grusin's "Theme from Mulholland Falls"and John Bary's "Body Heat, both arranged by Joe Locke, serve as excellent showcases Grant Stewart's tenor prowess. John Sneider proves to be a skilled balladeer on trumpet with a full round sound particularly on "Chinatown (Theme)" which he also arranged.

Guitarist/composer/educator Bob Sneider is currently the Jazz Guitar Professor at the Eastman School of Music. Sneider performs a multi-faceted role at Eastman as Instructor of Jazz Guitar at the Eastman's Community Education Division and Jazz & Contemporary Media Department.

Before joining the Eastman faculty in 1997, Bob Sneider won Downbeat's 1989 "Outstanding Performance in High School Jazz" award; an award he duplicated at the collegiate level in 1993. Sneider toured with two-time Grammy Award Winner Chuck Mangione for nearly four years. Other notable performers with whom Sneider has performed include: Nat Adderley, Don Menza, Nick Brignola, Houston Person, Etta Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Gene Ludwig, Steve Gadd, Gerry Niewood, Ralph Lalama, Roy McCurdy, Freddie Cole, Jon Faddis, Keeter Betts and frequent appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Pops(guitar/banjo). Bob has also toured with his brother John, who plays on several of the cuts on this debut album.

The Film Noir Project band

Paul Hofmann was born in Buffalo, New York in 1962. His parents were Paul's first piano teachers, and he went on to study at the National Music Camp (Interlochen, Michigan) and at the Eastman School of Music, where he now serves full-time on the Eastman Community Music School faculty.

In this capacity Paul teaches private composition and jazz piano instruction, as well as teaching a variety of classes and improvisation workshops ranging from Jazz Composition & Arranging and Jazz Lab Band to three innovative classes Hofmann has introduced into the curriculum: New Inventions, New Etudes and Contemporary Popular Composition. Paul also remains active as a performer, composer and recording artist; and when time permit as a producer and music columnist.
Joe Locke is regarded by many to be the most gifted vibraphonist of his generation. In addition to his strengths as an instrumentalist, the recent recordings and live performances by the Joe Locke & Geoffrey Keezer Quartet, the Milt Jackson Tribute Band and his group "4 Walls of Freedom", offer evidence of his ever-growing stature as a band leader, composer and conceptualist.

Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, N.Y., Locke is a self-taught improviser, though he benefited from his early studies in classical percussion and composition at the Eastman School of Music with John Beck, Gordon Stout, Ted Moore and David Mancini. As a jazz musician, Locke was precocious, having played with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Pepper Adams and Mongo Santamaria before he was even out of high school. Since moving to New York City in 1981, Joe has performed with Grover Washington Jr., Kenny Barron, Dianne Reeves, Eddie Daniels, Jerry Gonzales' Fort Apache Band, Rod Stewart,The Beastie Boys, Eddie Henderson, Hiram Bullock, Bob Berg, Ron Carter, Jimmie Scott, The Mingus Big Band and Randy Brecker, among many others. Joe has toured extensively throughout the world, both as leader and guest soloist. Joe Locke has released more than 20 recordings as a band leader, and appeared on over 100 albums as a guest artist.