Ernie Krivda – Blues for Pekar – Capri Records 74110-2, 68:53 ****:
(Ernie Krivda, tenor sax; Claude Black, piano; Marion Hayden, bass; Renell Gonsalves, drums. Special guests: Sean Jones (tracks 3 & 5), and Dominick Farinacci (tracks 1 & 7), trumpets)
Every major metropolitan city has its jazz heroes, those that largely avoided the temptation to relocate to New York City or Chicago, the two main jazz centers in the country. These veteran jazz musicians may have flirted with relocating to a city where they can record more and play more often for a living wage and become well known, but decided to stay in their home city for the long haul..
Cleveland, Ohio, is one city that has kept some of its most accomplished musicians local. So has Detroit, who has a rich jazz history dating back to the 1930s. It is appropriate that Cleveland’s tenor sax mainstay, Ernie Krivda, has recorded a CD dedicated to one of its city’s icons, jazz critic and comic strip icon Harvey Pekar – and included as his rhythm section, “The Detroit Connection”, made up of veterans Claude Black (age 77), bassist, Marion Hayden, and Renell Gonsalves, the son of legendary Ellington saxophonist, Paul Gonsalves. As special guests, Krivda adds both trumpeters Sean Jones, and Dominick Farinacci, both students of his while at the Tri-C Jazz Studies program in Cleveland. Both Sean and Dominick are rising stars in their own right with CDs as leaders.
Ernie Krivda, himself, has recorded for several labels and spent some time in Los Angeles with Quincy Jones in 1973, and in New York City from 1976-1979. However, for many years now he has kept Cleveland his home. Harvey Pekar, an astute critic of jazz talent, felt that Ernie was “one of the best tenor saxophonists in the world.”
Listening to Blues for Pekar, it is easy to see what drew Ernie to Pekar. Krivda has the robust big tone of an old school tenor player. He can blow with the best boppers and can also emote sweet and lyrical. His staccato skills are beyond reproach. On his new CD you can draw a comparison to Art Pepper, for leaving nothing on the bandstand and having a passion for his horn without gimmicks.
Blues for Pekar is composed of seven tracks, with five standards and two Krivda-penned compositions: “One for Willie (for saxophonist Willie Smith) and “Blues for Pekar.”
You will notice immediately on “The End of a Love Affair” that Ernie has hard-blowing chops with fast tempo lines coming at you non-stop. It is full throated blowing with a bopper’s tang. Dominick Farinacci keeps up with Ernie with several choruses of hard bop solo time. “More Than You Know” lets Ernie pour out passionate ballad changes that have the power of a Dexter Gordon or an early Sonny Rollins. Krivda clearly shows that he can play with the heavyweights.
“Valse Hot” and “Darn That Dream” continue the winning streak, and Sean Jones shows his bona fides on Dexter Gordon’s “Fried Bananas,” where he trades eights and fours with Ernie. Renell Gonsalves drives the quintet and is responsive to the horns in pushing forward the intensity. On “One for Willie” Marion Hayden duets with Ernie on the melody that is based on the chord changes from “Out of Nowhere.”
Closing on the title track tribute to Harvey Pekar, Farinacci and Pekar share honors on this hard bop blues tribute with Dom center stage for the first five minutes and then Ernie stepping up. Hayden is also strong in the mix. This track would hold its own with the best of the golden age of hard bop represented by Blue Note and Prestige issues from the 1960s.
Besides being a comic book legend, Harvey Pekar was a first-rate judge of jazz talent. Ernie Krivda is the real thing. Check out Blues for Pekar and judge for yourself. It will surely end up on the cashier’s counter and in your shopping bag…
TrackList: The End of a Love Affair, More Than You Know, Valse Hot, Darn That Dream, Fried Bananas, One for Willie, Blues for Pekar
— Jeff Krow
