CHICAGO — If its title didn’t already tip you off, “Tenor Time” — out on jazz label AFAR Music this Friday — declares what it’s all about from the very first track. An uptempo rhythm section, flavored with sly chromaticism by pianist and AFAR founder and owner Richard D. Johnson, plugs along before not one, not two, but three tenor saxophonists punch to the fore: Geof Bradfield, Scott Burns and John “Wojo” Wojciechowski.
Scarcely does one see multiple tenors in the same configuration. For their decades of overlap in a city with a much-hailed tenor tradition, Bradfield, Burns and Wojciechowski can only call to mind one instance when all three of them shared a bandstand, for a Von Freeman tribute at Andy’s. (Even then, Wojciechowski was subbing on alto.) Hearing Bradfield, Burns, and Wojciechowski play tenor on the same record — deftly backed by Johnson, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Greg Artry — is the Chicago tenor sax equivalent of a fantasy football team.
“There’s a lot of mutual respect,” Burns says. “It was a real treat to play with each other, and it’s definitely the first time that all three of us have recorded together.”
Johnson’s AFAR has been in the business of realizing musical fantasies since last year’s “Altoizm,” which brought together Chicago alto players Greg Ward, Rajiv Halim, and Sharel Cassity (also Johnson’s wife) in a similar sextet. Johnson first founded AFAR to release music by his five-piece band of the same name, which played live at Atlanta Hawks games from 2004 to 2006. When the pandemic began walloping the performing arts, Johnson, who had by then relocated to the Chicago area, revived the label to help musicians release their work. He opened a studio, the Jazz Place, in the basement of his and Cassity’s Carpentersville home in the summer of 2020. He’s leased it out to musicians for free ever since.
“As long as the pandemic’s happening, and you’ve got good sense and don’t do nothing crazy, why not?” Johnson says.
The pianist is similarly self-effacing when it comes to matchmaking Bradfield, Burns and Wojciechowski for “Tenor Time.”
“When I came to Chicago, I did a couple gigs with Geof, and I knew about Wojo for years from the Monk (now Herbie Hancock) Institute Competition. Then, I did a gig with Scott (on alto), and he said, ‘I also play tenor.’ Which is a signal that’s the real instrument,” Johnson remembers with a laugh.
“When I found out they were all here, and they hadn’t recorded together before, I was like, ‘Let’s put something together.’ It’s not really rocket science.”
Johnson, Bradfield, Burns, and Wojciechowski contributed two original compositions each for “Tenor Time.” They knew early on the album would likely be recorded in a single session, since the pandemic nixed any hope of meeting regularly for rehearsals. That limitation presented an intriguing creative challenge: What could each musician write that was straightforward enough to be nailed in one or two takes, but still sounded engaging, varied and novel?
From there, “Tenor Time’s” variety emerged naturally: Burns wrote a composition in three (his sunny “Monday Waltz”), Wojciechowski a blues number (“Altar Blues,” named less for its spiritual affinities than the fact that it is, in fact, a blues form with altered chords) and Johnson a Latin-inflected piece (“Corea,” a Fender Rhodes-infused tribute to his late collaborator and mentor Chick Corea).
“I thought of (the pieces) more as vehicles for collective improvisation,” Wojciechowski says. “The three of us have played together in a lot of different arrangements — I’ve played with Geof a lot, I’ve played with Scott a lot, they’ve played together a lot, and we’ve all played with the bass and drum team and Richard. We knew where that could go, and there’s a lot of trust there.”
For example, Johnson says he wrote out melodies in the second half of “Curioso” that were indebted to each saxophonist’s playing style, each egging one another on until the number drifts to uncharted harmonic waters. Then, in “Some Other Sunday” — a nod to Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” — Bradfield gives each of his tenor compatriots a taste of the melody, with himself at the head, Burns the bridge, and Wojciechowski the head’s return at the end.
“I picked each person whose sound would be best represented in that section. Mine is low and on the quieter side, mostly in a subtone register. Scott’s is a little more dynamic and moving into the upper register. And then John has this beautiful, almost gospel-feeling sound in his upper register, so I thought it’d be great if we finished with the same melody I have in the beginning, but (higher),” Bradfield says.
The takes on “Tenor Time” are all relatively compact, with the longest tracks coming in under nine minutes. But the musicians plan to cut loose at Jazz Showcase this weekend, stretching the tunes to see what new synergies emerge. Nor, as Johnson teased several times during our conversation, will “Tenor Time” be the last word on a collaboration between these tenor players.
In the meantime, he and Bradfield will be celebrating another album release, along with drummer Samuel Jewell and bassist John Tate: “Our Heroes,” a tribute to the quartet’s musical idols due this April. Johnson’s “Corea” will get another outing on that record, as well as a piece by Bradfield in memory of pianist and Strata-East Records founder Stanley Cowell.
“His music’s pretty edgy, so the tune I wrote is a blues that is not easy — the antithesis of what we were talking about (with “Tenor Time”),” Bradfield says.
And after that? Is bari sax next?
“I’ve thought about it,” Johnson says, to chuckles from Burns, Bradfield, and Wojciechowski. “For me, I just turn the Rubik’s Cube and let people do what they do.”
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