Stefon Harris
“African Tarantella: Dances With Duke”
(Blue Note)

3 Stars

Ace vibraphonist Stefon Harris doesn’t shy away from the big questions. On 2003’s “Grand Unification Theory,” he sought to encapsulate the entirety of human history in a 13-piece suite arranged for big band. With his latest release, “African Tarantella: Dances with Duke,” Harris makes a musical argument for the permanence of great art, reimagining two of Duke Ellington’s lesser-known late suites and performing an extended composition of his own.

When Harris traded in his mallets for the conductor’s baton on “Grand Unification Theory,” excessive aspiration sometimes edged out simple musicality. “African Tarantella” is no different: the simple appeal of the blues is often buried under the weight of ambition. When sparser arrangements allow the musicians to stretch out, the album succeeds; when lush orchestrations dominate, the music loses clarity and distinction.

Harris and his unconventional ensemble (a nonet including viola and cello) begin the album auspiciously with pieces from Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s 1970 “New Orleans Suite.” Here, Harris’ playing is at its bright-edged, percussive best, and his relentlessly-swinging approach pervades the whole band’s sound. Drummer Terreon Gully and bassist Derrick Hodge play with a bluesy intensity that recalls the hard-charging rhythm section of Dannie Richmond and Charles Mingus, and Steve Turre’s forceful trombone backgrounds make the ensemble sound twice its size.

Unfortunately, Harris’s band can’t keep up this pace for long: by the time that they reach the final piece of the first suite, “Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies,” the band already seems to have lost steam, even as Harris tries vainly to provide locomotion with his consistently stellar playing. The lean, muscular feel of the first tracks has deteriorated into a shapeless wash of strings and flute, a tone which blurs many of the remaining Ellington tunes, illuminating the danger of re-orchestrating the work of jazz’s most masterful arranger.

An exception to the forgettable latter portion of the Ellington suites comes with a pared-down trio version of “The Single Petal of a Rose.” On this, one of Ellington’s most beautiful compositions, Harris delicately draws out the richness of his instrument above warmly bowed bass and cello. His gentle touch proves beyond any doubt his astounding abilities as an instrumentalist. On Harris’s own “Gardner Meditations” suite, the group attempts a return to their early form, but never quite gets there: a few moments of great ensemble playing do arrive at the last moment to conclude the album on an upswing.

If Harris’ musical experiments aren’t always unqualified successes, he can be forgiven for his overextension; the pressure to innovate surely weighs heavily on his shoulders. No era of jazz ever includes more than a few great vibraphonists, and now, with musicians like Steve Nelson doing their best playing as sidemen, and with greats like Bobby Hutcherson decades past their most important work, Harris has taken up the mantle of jazz’s highest-profile practitioner of the instrument and all of the expectation that comes with it.

And his ideas, even if imperfectly executed, are good. Freeing wonderful music from relative obscurity is certainly an admirable goal—none of the pieces recorded here rank among Ellington’s best-known works, and they certainly deserve wider exposure. But good intentions don’t always make the best music. The philosophizing, orchestrating, and conducting aren’t enough to sink this album, but they’re plenty reason to make a listener wish that Stefon Harris would stick to what he does best: playing the vibes.

—Reviewer Tom C. Denison can be reached at denison@fas.harvard.edu.