Joe Ascione Quarter – Movin’ Up – Arbors Jazz ARCD 19359, 55:28 ***** [Distr. by Allegro]:
(Joe Ascione – drums; Allan Vaché – clarinet; John Cocuzzi – piano, vibes, vocal (track 6); Frank Tate – bass)
Deep swing—that’s what characterizes this very attractive music. Not a lot of flash here. They’re selling steak, not the sizzle. Lots of young lions coming up through the schools and bandstands try to make music like this, but seldom does it work this well. Why not? Too many young jazzers seem to think this music can simply be evoked, without a thorough and deeply delved understanding of it, let alone a genuine affection for the past masters who wrote it and made it come alive in performance.
A single hearing will convince listeners that this is the real thing, not the product of some young cats with chops to burn who think they can conjure up its sensibility without truly loving and appreciating it. What makes it all the more amazing is that leader Ascione suffers from MS. Diagnosed in 2000 after experiencing numbness in his hands and other places in his body, he has now lived with the disease for more than eight years.
I almost didn’t disclose in this review that he is an MS sufferer, simply because there might be a natural inclination to hear this entirely marvelous music and think, “Isn’t it great that he plays so well with his disability?” That would be an understandable but entirely inappropriate reaction. He simply plays great. Period. It is almost certainly true that his disease affects his drumming. But remarkably, he’s able to compensate in ways that make him, perhaps, unique in his approach. Whenever someone says that a major disability is “a blessing in disguise,” there’s always the temptation to think that that’s a rationalization. I know. I have an adult son with autism, a severely debilitating disease. Yet, there are compensations. Because of his disability, my son can experience things “normal” people can’t: he can enter into (especially religious) experiences at a deeper and more profound level than the ordinary person. And that almost seems to be happening here. Because Ascione literally has no feeling in his hands, he has to find ways to play the drums that depart from the ordinary. And he seems to have found them.
How does he do it? Part of it must be something like muscle memory: when Ascione came up about two decades ago, he was widely regarded as one of the most technically proficient and chops-heavy drummers in the history of the music. Somehow he’s retained that proficiency even as he’s experienced the loss of sensory feeling. One hesitates to claim something mystical or supernatural for his drumming genius. But how else account for it? Maybe that time he spent in the Seminary studying for the Catholic priesthood before he became a professional musician is being paid forward. Whatever the reason, this thoroughly enjoyable session establishes Ascione as not only a musician entirely worth hearing, but one of uncommon courage and even genius.
TrackList:
Movin’ Up
So in Love
Sip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’s Got Rhythm
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face/Norwegian Wood
True Love
It Was a Very Good Year
Love Walked In
Summertime
The Touch of Your Lips
Get Out of Town
The Aba Daba Honeymoon
– Jan P. Dennis
