Themes and Variations

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
He was not as well-known as Phil Woods or Tony Scott, but the Philadelphia-born alto saxophonist-clarinetist and educator John La Porta was one of the most versatile jazz artists to have emerged in the 1940s and '50s (he worked as a sideman with Charles Mingus, Woody Herman, and Lennie Tristano). This CD contains two LPs that summarize La Porta's forward-thinking bebop and baroque-influenced ideas. Tracks 1 through 14 contain his never-before-released 1956 work for octet, Theme and Variations. La Porta's evocative opus contains solo features for every instrument except drums, and highlights the leader's extensive classical training. The swinging counterpoint on "2nd Variation (Jazz Canon)" and "5th Variation (Jazz Fugue)" echoes John Lewis's work with the Modern Jazz Quartet. The remaining tracks are from the previously released Conceptions album from 1958, with virtually the same personnel. That recording expands on La Porta's bop-born counterpoint, especially on his "out" arrangement of the Duke Ellington-Juan Tizol classic, "Caravan," which anticipates the angular improvisations of Ornette Coleman. All in all, this collection reveals what a master composer John La Porta is. If Theme and Variations had been released in the '50s, the history of jazz would have been very different. --Eugene Holley Jr.

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