Pete Christlieb: Press

Tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb has been a driving force in West Coast jazz for at least 30 years. For twenty years he was a member of Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show Band, where he played roaring solos during the station breaks. Christlieb also played on big bands led by Bob Florence, Bill Holman and Louie Bellson, and within small groups led by Jack Sheldon and co-led with Don Menza and Warne Marsh. Besides studio work, Christlieb is active as a guest soloist and clinician at colleges and jazz festivals all over the U.S.


Self Portrait is a re-issue of a 1981 vinyl album by Christlieb, produced here for the first time on CD. The music consists of five originals and two standards, and finds Christlieb enlisting the talents of 12 musicians in various combinations. The impressive list of musicians begins with Joe Roccisano, alto saxophone and woodwinds; Warne Marsh, tenor saxophone; Steve Huffsteter, flugel horn; Don Christlieb, bassoon and contra bassoon; Jim Hughart, acoustic and electric bass; John Morell, guitar; Lou Levy, piano: Mike Melvoin, Hammond organ and electric piano; Dick Berk and Nick Ceroli, drums; and, last but not least, Jeremy Steinholtz and Joe Porcaro, percussion.


The CD opener, Hookin' It, is a blues shuffle that steamrolls right down the middle of the road complete with organ and over dubbed saxes. It includes good solos by Roccisano and Melvoin followed by Christlieb, who shows you just why he gets the "big bucks." So What's Old follows featuring a quartet sans chord instrument consisting of Christlieb, Marsh, Hughart and Ceroli. The two tenors improvise freely (most of it simultaneously) on the changes of Bob Haggart's What's New. The lines and counterpoint created by the tenors is truly magical, and illustrates how powerful music can be when created by people who really know how to listen to one another.


Vu-Ja-Day, written and arranged by Christlieb, is a Latin-based groove tune that switches back and forth between a bossa-nova and 12/8 feel. Besides the leader's beautiful melodic solo, Don Christlieb (Pete's father) is heard in an excellent, albeit brief, improvised cadenza, his first ever. Up next is Lou Levy's Lunarcy, described as "a kind of Giant Steps approach to How High the Moon. After two different statements of the melody (first by piano, then by the two tenors), the cats play solos at "tempo de lunacy." Levy is up first for a couple of good solid choruses, followed by Marsh and then Christlieb. Both tenors just tear it up with incredible speed and clarity in a way that defies believability. This is the money track of the CD that makes it worth the price!


Mari, by Roccisano is a lilting jazz waltz that features the mellow flugel horn of Steve Huffsteter, a little known L.A. treasure for the last 35 years. Christlieb follows with that oh-so-identifiable sound and phrasing, putting the tune a few notches higher on the intensity food chain. Listen to the saxophone quartet interludes courtesy of Mr. Roccisano.


The final two tunes on the recording are the only standards on the date: Frank Loesser's I've Never Been in Love Before and Johnny Mandel's Close Enough for Love. The former, a swinging romp featuring the high-flying Christlieb, complete with organ, the latter, a medium groover with Christlieb and Marsh weaving endless melodic lines while still swinging their collective tails off.


This CD could be considered a memorial tribute, since five members of the ensemble (Marsh, Roccisano, Levy, Ceroli and Don Christlieb) are all gone. Better to think of it as a tribute to all the great musicians that contributed to its creation. Pete Christlieb has been, and continues to be, one of the most powerful voices on the tenor saxophone in the last several decades and Self Portrait helps to prove the point.