Austin Jazz Workshop
Take to the Sky (AusJazz Music)
To risk an undisguised, unabashed cliché, the Austin Jazz Workshop is greater than the sum of its parts. But hold on. Considering the Workshop’s parts, this is no meager suggestion. Do the names Tina Marsh or James Polk ring a bell? How about Ernie Durawa, Marty Allen, Suzi Stern, Rich Harney, Michael Mellinger, Freddie Mendoza, and Pat Murray? They do if you’ve ever seen jazz in Austin, because odds are one of these — or any of the other participants in the Workshop — was in the band you saw. On Take to the Sky, they all put their considerable talent into a dozen standards and come up with some really pleasant tracks, especially late in the album where a spirited take on Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” is followed by a faithful reading of Miles’ “Freddie Freeloader.” Most of the time, however, the album suffers from “too many cooks” syndrome, and too much ends up at not enough. Even so, Take to the Sky is not the sum of these parts, but another part of a greater mission: to bring jazz music and real live working musicians into local public schools with the noble goals of fueling creativity and keeping kids out of harm’s way. That’s where proceeds from this album will go. They’ve been out there doing it in Austin since 1994, and the program is growing strong. Now that’s worth more of those little stars than we’re allowed to offer.
This article appears in August 25 • 2000.