Faye Carol might seem like she’s hoarding the world’s greatest drummers, but the dynamic jazz and blues singer is more than happy to share.
Over the past decade, working with her longtime pianist Joe Warner, she’s produced dozens of concerts and events around the region showcasing leading horn players and under-appreciated Black women singers. But the Berkeley vocalist keeps a special place in her heart for the drummers “who are the base of any good trio or group,” she said.
Working with Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs’s JaZzLine INSTITUTE in partnership with San Jose Jazz (with support from the California Arts Council), Carol is bringing her “Give the Drummer Some” series to the SJZ Breakroom for monthly concerts and free workshops. The program opened with sessions featuring drummers Sylvia Cuenca and Dante Roberson and continues March 21 with Dennis Chambers, a former child prodigy who joined Parliament-Funkadelic in 1978 at 18, a gig that lasted until 1985.
A near legendary figure who gained international renown touring and recording with John Scofield, Chambers played with just about every major jazz fusion artist of the past 40 years. He’s so strongly associated with the plugged-in style that “a lot of people don’t know I grew up playing with singers,” said Chambers, 64. “The first record I played on that was a big hit was the gospel song ‘God Gave Me a Song’ by Myrna Summers. I think I was 10.”
Until George Clinton hired him for Parliament-Funkadelic, most of Chambers’ work was backing vocalists. But that’s been mostly forgotten.
“Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, everybody knew me for the Scofield stuff, but I love playing behind singers,” he said. “It’s a special thing. It’s not about turning it into a drum show. Playing with Faye is always great because she can mix it up. She loves musicians.”
Carol and Warner recently got back from an East Coast jaunt that included an engagement with Chambers at Keystone Korner Baltimore, a club run by Todd Barkan, Carol’s old friend from her North Beach years in the 1970s and ‘80s. She and Chambers have struck up an affectionate mutual admiration society, and Carol hires him “whenever I can get the chance,” she said.
“Now we’ve got a very good friendship and playing partnership. We have a special chemistry. He’s a very sweet and kind man. I’m probably the only singer who calls him for gigs. He’s not called upon to play a bunch of diverse stuff, and people are so surprised that he swings. He can and does and is happy to do it.”
The Break Room series continues April 25 with NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart, with whom Carol has performed several times in recent years. On May 9 she brings out Greg Hutchinson for her first encounter with the Brooklyn-born master now living in Rome.
“I saw Greg years ago with Roy Hargrove and really loved him,” Carol said. “He’s always full of fire. He lives out of the country and getting him back here from Italy is a big thing that Joe arranged. He’s another person who has a big arsenal and can play just about anything.”
If Hutchinson is a new connection, Ron E. Beck, who joins Carol and Warner on June 13, is an old compatriot from her days singing R&B in Oakland in the late 1960s. Lenny White, who played on epochal fusion albums by Miles Davis (1969’s “Bitches Brew”), Freddie Hubbard (1972’s “Red Clay”), and Chick Corea’s Return to Forever (1973’s “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy”), takes over the hot seat July 11.
Much like Chambers is indelibly linked to funk and fusion, White tends to be pigeonhole as a fusion patriarch. Carol loves giving the cats a chance to roam.
“I love that we explore so many different aspects of the cats’ abilities, getting them playing things that people don’t think of them as doing, as well as the things they’re known for,” she said. “We wanted a wide array of drummers. To have Dennis Chambers and Mr. Hart on the same series, that’s a wide range of Black music. I just like singing everything I like.”
The series closes on Aug. 9 with Charles Haynes, who isn’t nearly as well known in jazz and funk circles as the other players. Joe Warner heard about him playing with Grammy Award-winning jazz phenomenon Samara Joy, but he’s known in the world of popular music as a drummer, producer and music director for acts like Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, and Queen Latifah.
“My quest is to keep the spirit of the music alive,” Carol said. “To be able to have some of the world’s best drummers give master classes to these young people means everything.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
THE DYNAMIC MISS FAYE CAROL
Featuring Dennis Chambers
When: 8 p.m. March 21
Where: SJZ Break Room, 310 S. First St., San Jose
Tickets: $25; 408-288-7557, sanjosejazz.org
