Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns
"Fire Horns" CD
Sopro Records

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
MUSIC PREVIEW
 Article by: JAY HARVEY
 MAY, 1996

CHICAGO HORNS BLAZE ON ORIGINAL NUMBERS.

"They take a hot approach to jazz with blues, pop and salsa flavors in the mix."

So who in blazes puts out a disc called "Fire Horns" and manages to deliver the heat promised in the title? Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns, that's who.

The band, a sextet headed by trombonist McFarland, will play the Jazz Kitchen Saturday, beginning at 9 p.m.

Released late last year, "Fire Horns"(Sopro Records) sums up the type of music Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns can be expected to present in their four-hour stint here.

The three horn players' long experience in blues, pop and salsa styles has made the band's approach to jazz straightforward, catchy and as blustery as a March stroll in the Windy City.

ENGAGING DISC:

The tunes tend to be built on riffs and phrases that are easy to grasp right away.  For anyone new to jazz, this is an ingratiating disc.  The groove laid down is one that immediately engages the listener, even when the melodic structure droops along the way, as in the bridge of Harold The Great.

And then there's Mild Wind, named with eerie accuracy: The tune starts out like a soulful swinger, becoming becalmed soon after.  The intensity is fitful, which some listeners will find more appealing than I did.  There are certainly a lot of predecessors in this vein, songs that flip from "mild" to "wild" and back again.

As if to offer further song-title comment on what this band's all about, there's Mood Swings.  This is a more consistent number, despite its suggestion of ambivalence, which has an almost pop-like appeal without explicit pop referents.  With its suave bravado, Kenny Anderson's muted trumpet solo is just right in this context.

The other member of the front line is tenor saxophonist Hank Ford, whose droopy soul-ballad sound (honed in service to Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and others) works well on Maho's Dream I,  by the group's pianist, Osamu Sam Soda.  (Another  version of the tune closes the disc.)

IDENTITY MAINTAINED:

With Soda on electric keyboard for Hip Hop Swing, The Chicago Horns show they can come close to a prominent contemporary genre without losing their mainstream, hard-bop identity.  And Peace Is The Key gives an inoffensive twist to the sentimental side of today's pop.   Typically reliable in both numbers are bassist Mike Staron and drummer Rick Vitek.

It's on the title tune Fire Horns (a Soda original) that the band gives freest vent to its powerhouse credentials.  With hard-hitting but never mindless solos from the three horns plus the composer, this is the kind of tune that probably provides a dependable romping vehicle for The Chicago Horns every time out.

Let's hope that Jazz Kitchen patrons will hear the visiting band at a similarly inspired level throughout its performance.  Certainly the tightness and vigor of the ensemble come through consistently on the Sopro/Moonlight Records release, even as the material varies.

Article by: Jay Harvey