By: Rick Landers
Kyle Eastwood
This summer, a sublime set of jazz wafted out the door of the Parisian corner café, Duc des Lombard, one of the finest jazz cafés in the city. The club can be found in the heart of Les Marais (The Marsh), surrounded by art galleries, bistros, clothiers and the sputtering of errant motorbikes passing along the Boulevard Sebastopol.
Inside the blue lit club stood talented double bass player, Kyle Eastwood, who has released three critically acclaimed CDs and a complement of music and soundtracks for several films including: Flags of our Fathers, Invictus and Gran Torino, which snagged him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. Sharing the stage were members of the Kyle Eastwood Band that would prove to be a pack of world-class performers including: Jim Rotondi (trumpet/fugelhorn), Andrew McCormack (piano), Martyn Kaine (drums) and Graeme Blevins (tenor and soprano sax).
The evening featured many tracks from Eastwood’s most recent release on Rendezvous Records, Songs from the Chateuau (2011), an album recorded at Le Chateau Couronneau in Liguex, France. After an intro tune from Eastwood’s Metropolitan CD (2009), his group rolled out some jazz atmospherics starting with Chateau’s “Soul Captain” that was quintessential urban hip with a cool blend of horns and a rainy interlude from Blevin’s soprano sax. The group dug in deeper with their follow-up Chateau track, “Tonic,” a more thoughtful tune with Blevins featured, while Eastwood and Kaine gave the piece a bit of Miles Davis stylin’.
Shifting gears, Eastwood ventured into his 2005, Paris Blue CD with “Marrakech,” a track influenced by a trip he took to Morocco. He brought back some ambient atmospherics and percussion from the African backstreets that were haunting and exotic. Still, the romanticism was much smoother than some of the cacophony heard in the streets of Morocco, with other worldly influences finding their way into the piece.
Eastwood on bass is a sight to behold. Armed with his rare Gibson Bunny Brunel electric basses (Two of twelve made I believe) or his stand-up basses, he performs with grace, even when punching out triplets. Without a need to monopolize the spotlight, Kyle drifted in and out of the lead as the music and the mood demanded, effortlessly, leaving plenty of room for the other guys to showcase their talents.
Next up was an evocative tune of sweetness and tranquility named “Iwo Jima” that captivated with an emotional and meaningful soulfulness reaching toward sadness and no little lost innocence. As in most of Eastwood’s arrangements, there’s a cinematic quality that unfolds where we visualize scenes drawn out by the music, but of our own design.
Reaching back again to Chateau, Eastwood and crew pushed out the track, “Andalucia”, with its testosterone-fueled mood of pulsating rhythms, tight bass lines, and strapping trumpet riffs, all evoking the agility of the matador and the strength of the powerful bulls of Seville.
With little banter, Eastwood and crew moved forward with “Café Calypso,” before playing the quirky whistled tune “Big Noise,” with its quickstep full swing rhythm. A crowd pleaser and one that the band clearly got a kick out of playing, the track was a fresh take on the ‘30s and enough to make a zoot cat proud.
The music of the Kyle Eastwood Band rarely blares at you or jostles one about. It’s moodier and washes over you while it pulls you into a full embrace with thoughtful phrasing – more contemplative, but not without direction or intent. How fortunate to find the group playing at the top of their game in the City of Light.
Kyle Eastwood and Jim Rotondi
