First time at the African-American Cultural Center at Yale, a hallowed hall sandwiched between the Yale Cabaret and the hippie enclave The Group W Bench. April brings May showers but also the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective’s annual weekend festival. The collective is a revolving cast of well-connected jazz nerds that put on several shows with top tier talent. Nat is an alum (‘77) and has a five star jazz pedigree. His father Senior and uncle Julian “Cannonball” are pillars of 60s and 70s Jazz. I’ve come to realize that cornet playing senior wrote the standard “Work Song”, one of the most copied songs in the jazz canon. Junior plays organ and assembled a quartet of bass, sax/flute, and drums. As a connected jazz man and a degree from Yale, Nat has spent most of his time as musical director for Luther Vandross. Soul and R&B hits need to be arranged and scored, and Nat has the chops to serve up hits for his boss. The set was wide ranging, started with the Wayne Shorter composition Yes And No, then on to a rolling workout of Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments. Vandross tasked Nat to arrange Superstar by the Carpenters, which apparently was a huge hit despite having “no business being played on the radio at 10 minutes”.They played an uptempo version of the tune with flute standing in for the vocals. Next up is the Philly soul fave People Make The World Go Round with an excellent galloping bass backdrop. Final tune was You and I by Stevie Wonder. The world is full of musical siblings and often the level of success differs, I mean who can forget Thelonius’ lesser known brother Chip. Nat jr. has forged a career as a well connected musician, it was nice to see him cut loose in a familiar surrounding.
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