Alex Henderson

John Patitucci
 
By Alex Henderson

When people hear the word “communion,” they usually think of a Christian gathering. But the word can also be used to describe a gathering or fellowship that doesn’t necessarily take place in a religious setting. Communion, John Patitucci’s tenth album as a leader, is so-named because it represents a musical fellowship with a variety of musicians--some American, some Cuban and some Brazilian. On Communion, the personnel often varies from one song to the next, and the end result is a very diverse and unpredictable post-bop release.

“Having been heavily involved in Christianity, I tend to think of the spiritual meaning of Communion,” the 41-year-old Patitucci explains. “But the word could also be used to describe an interaction of different cultures, and that was what I was trying to get at with the title Communion--on this record, you have different cultures coming together. You have an international, multicultural cast, which makes a lot of sense if you look at jazz’s history. From the beginning, jazz was multicultural--it had the rhythmic sophistication of Africa as well as the harmonic influence of American blues and gospel.”

The list of musicians who Patitucci employs on Communion (which was recorded at four different sessions in February and March 2001) is a long one. In addition to employing a string quartet and musicians from different parts of Latin America, Communion features such American virtuosos as pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonists Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis and Chris Potter. As Patitucci puts it: “There is an extended family on this record.”

If Patitucci’s last album, Imprint, had a multicultural outlook, Communion  is even more multicultural because it has an even wider variety of influences. Some of the songs have strong Afro-Cuban leanings (“Misterioso”), and some are more Brazilian-minded (“Choro Luoco”). “Isabella,” which is named after one of Patitucci’s daughters, combines the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influences.

The opener “Bariloche” (which is named after a town in Argentina) mixes the South American candombe rhythm with Afro-Cuban elements, while the title song (which features Branford Marsalis on soprano sax) incorporates elements of European classical music. Communion  is an album in which Afro-Cuban experts like drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and percussionist Marc Quinones have no problem playing alongside Brazilian artists (including singer Luciana Souza and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca), American improvisers and a pianist who has lived in Venezuela (Ed Simon). In fact, Hernandez and Quinones really showed their flexibility when, on “Choro Luoco,” they were called upon to embrace the Brazilian choro rhythm.

“El Negro and Marc Quinones work very well with Brazilian cats,” Patitucci comments. “A lot of times, Afro-Cuban percussionists don’t have the Brazilian rhythms in their vocabulary. But these guys do.”

Most of the songs on Communion were written by Patitucci himself. That includes all of the abovementioned pieces as well as the affectionate “Valentine”(which he wrote for his wife, cellist Sachi Patitucci) and “The Sower,” which was inspired by a famous Van Gogh painting. The only songs on Communion  that Patitucci didn’t write are Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes” and Oscar Pettiford’s “Bohemia After Dark,” both of which are bop classics that were written in the 1950s. Patitucci was determined to try something different with these standards, and he does exactly that by performing “Bohemia After Dark” unaccompanied on the upright bass and by performing “Soul Eyes” as an electric bass/acoustic piano duet with Brad Mehldau.

Patitucci dedicates “Bohemia After Dark” to two acoustic bass greats: Milt Hinton and Pettiford himself. The improviser asserts: “I feel that Oscar hasn’t really gotten his due. People talk about him, but a lot of people don't realize just how great he was. I think that’s because Oscar was only 37 when he died--had he lived as long as Ray Brown, it would have been a different story.”

Patitucci was only a baby when Pettiford died unexpectedly in 1960. Born in New York on December 22, 1959, Patitucci first studied the bass at the age of 11. The improviser eventually moved to Los Angeles, where Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard and other heavyweights employed him as a sideman in the early to mid-1980s. But Patitucci’s most famous sideman gig started in 1985, when he became a member of Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. In 1989, Corea launched an Elektric Band offshoot that he called the Akoustic Band--while the Elektric Band was a fusion-oriented quintet, the Akoustic Band was a straight-ahead bop/post-bop piano trio. And by playing in those groups simultaneously, Patitucci demonstrated that he was as comfortable providing fusion and jazz-funk as he was providing straight-ahead jazz. But because the Elektric Band was so popular and so visible, Patitucci often found himself being described as an “electric fusion bassist.”

Patitucci, who has since moved back to New York. recalls: “When people tried to pigeonhole me as strictly an electric guy, it didn’t make sense to me. It was like they were ignoring half of my personality--even though the Akoustic Band was right under their noses. But I’ve been playing both basses since I was 15--I started playing the electric bass when I was 11, and by the time I was 15, I was playing the acoustic bass as well. Now, I’m 41, and that’s a lot of years of playing both and enjoying both.”

Patitucci, who left the Elektric and Akoustic Bands in 1991, was still in Corea’s employ when he recorded his self-titled debut album for GRP in 1987. He went on to record several more projects for GRP before signing with Concord Jazz in 1995 and providing the very personal and introspective  One More Angel, which was followed by Now in 1998 and Imprint in 1999.

“With Imprint, I really wanted to incorporate all of the Afro-Cuban stuff that I had been getting into over the years, ”Patitucci notes.“ I see Communion as an extension of Imprint, not a sharp left turn--although I wanted to open things up a bit more and include some of the Brazilian and European classical influences. Over the years, jazz has always absorbed a lot of different cultures. Jazz is the ultimate world music because it has had an interaction of different cultures, and I see Communion  as a continuation of that.”♦