Search - Jon Faddis :: Teranga

Though Jon Faddis has enjoyed a distinguished a career as a trumpeter and bandleader, he has underachieved as a recording artist. He has made relatively few albums, none of them classics. (Interestingly, for all the albums his legendary mentor Dizzy Gillespie made, he isn't regarded as a great recording artist, either.) Teranga may not completely rehabilitate Faddis's studio reputation, but it's a solid, satisfying effort that draws cohesiveness from the presence of his working quartet and high spirits from the guest presence of the inimitable Clark Terry on "The Fibble-Ow Blues" (there's also a duet with guitarist Russell Malone). The soft, folk-melodic rhapsodizing on the 12-minute title cut, which features Senegalese percussion, is a bit cloying (think Herb Alpert), but it is overshadowed by moments of taut beauty and sly wit. Faddis enjoys toying with us with his muted, sotto voce tones before unleashing those trademark upper-register exhortations. The sure-footed rhythm section of David Hazeltine, Kyoshi Kitagawa and Dion Parson finds variety in the grooves and, on Benny Carter's "The Courtship," eloquence. --Lloyd Sachs