feature photo: Randy Cole
Peter Hum is the Ottawa Citizen‘s longtime food editor, restaurant critic, jazz writer and blogger. I often point out Hum’s primary means of making a living not just because he’s good at it, but he’s the rare jazz critic who occasionally subjects himself to the same kind of criticism. Luckily, he walks that walk most of the rest of us merely talk about; A Boy’s Journey and Alpha Moment are bonafide as modern, straight-ahead jazz records.
And now he’s on album #3. Ordinary Heroes — due out worldwide on March 6th, 2020 — is a set of songs Hum wrote primarily as a critical reaction and resistance to Trump and Trumpism, whose impacts go beyond America’s fast-closing borders, not the least of which is USA’s neighbor to the north where Hum calls home. Hum made his deep concerns about the current state of affairs in North America and beyond his lodestar that sparked a suite of compositions channeling his sentiments of disappointment and hope.
Every jazz musician shows influences from certain ones who came before them. The one the first comes to my mind when hearing Hum is Herbie Hancock, circa Maiden Voyage and Speak Like A Child, because of finely crafted songs with motifs that stick out by their gracefulness, bolstered by charts that accentuate their appeal. Sometimes that puts Hum in sideman roles on his own songs but that’s all right because he’s enlisted some of eastern Canada’s finest to enact these songs with an optimal presentation: Kenji Omae (tenor saxophone), Mike Rud (guitar), Alec Walkington (acoustic bass), Ted Warren (drums) and New York’s Dave Smith (trumpet). That’s close to the lineup Hum used for his second album Alpha Moment (2015), but Smith’s trumpet takes the place of Nathan Cepelinski’s second saxophone.
Hum’s two chord salutation for “Crises And Reckonings” presages a somewhat elaborate construction and it’s clear he means to leverage the sextet with its expansive sound and yet small ensemble agility to the fullest. What helps the most is that Hum made a graceful, satisfying strain that belies the disquieting title. Hum instigates “Cassandra” in much the same way but with an electric piano, displaying a relaxed, funky bent during his break. Omae stands out with an appropriately expressive sax as well.
“Fake News Blues” demonstrates the boys’ ability to swing but in Hum’s balletic manner. Rud has his chance to shine here and does, while Omae pours out a good part of his soul for his solo. Rud tastefully ushers in the soft samba “Nebulous Compensation,” and Smith takes the lead in sketching out the song’s winsome lyrical line.
“Rabble Rouser” borrows a bit from Horace Silver’s “Senor Blues” but Hum has the rhythm section do some interesting, shifty things underneath that make you appreciate how good Warren and Walkington are. The song goes nearly twelve minutes long to allow the band to stretch out and breathe, and there are individual highlights everywhere.
“Embers” ushers in a softer section of the album by dialing down the energy level a bit to set the stage for a sublime Smith showcase. Walkington takes care of the lead lines on the subdued “Tears For The Innocent” and reveals a lyrical bent with his solo spot prior to Hum’s own, stately touch on piano. “Spare Hearts” is a return to a plugged-in piano but this time Hum harmonizes it with Rud’s guitar, giving way to the sax/trumpet harmonizing that soon follows. Through all the front line solos, the Walkington/Warren unit still leaves a deep impression with their active, dialed-in support.
“Safe Passage” is a stealth bossa nova groove under a modern jazz melody where Smith once again turns in a stellar solo. But well into the track, the song makes a dramatic stop and a re-start from a repeating figure introduced by Rud and the rest of the band falls in line to add heft to it as Warren thrashes away.
“Ordinary Heroes” is the titular song that refers to the words of actor and activist George Takei who wrote, Even in the darkest of times, there were so many ordinary heroes who gave us hope and succor…. Like those words, the song– in a confident but non-showy way — builds up to a bright chorus pointing the way toward a hopeful future.
Ordinary Heroes is better than your ordinary mainstream jazz because Peter Hum composes, arranges and plays with the finesse and conviction he brings to his political activism. Purchase a digital copy now from Bandcamp.
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