The art of the tenor

Berklee College of Music celebrates Bill Pierce, the former head of the woodwind department

Yawu Miller

Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO

Sharing the bandstand with many of his former students and past and present colleagues, saxophonist Bill Pierce reminded an audience at the Berklee Performance Center why he has long been one of the most widely celebrated tenor players, dazzling the audience with strong performances on ballads including “My One and Only Love” and hard-driving, up-tempo pieces such as Joe Henderson’s “Finale ¾ Homestretch.”

The Sept. 26 concert, titled “The Art of the Tenor: Celebrating Bill Pierce,” was a tribute to the former head of the Berklee College of Music Woodwind Department. Pierce, who retired at the end of the last academic year after more than four decades at Berklee, has returned to being a full-time musician, touring most frequently with guitarist Kevin Eubanks. The assembled musicians, particularly the saxophone players, represented a through-the-decades look at Pierce’s most notable students and collaborators.

The songbook referenced much of Pierce’s musical trajectory through his tenure in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, as a member of the Roxbury-born Tony Williams’ band and as a band leader in his own right. Undergirding Pierce’s playing and musical sensibilities are the chops he formed working in the late ’60s and early ’70s in the house band at the legendary Boston soul club The Sugar Shack and playing with Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

Anchored by drummer Ron Savage, dean of the college’s Professional Performance Division, musicians in the first set included tenor saxophonists Javon Jackson, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana and alto saxophonist Antonio Hart. David Gilmore was on guitar, Lawrence Fields on piano and Ira Coleman on bass.

Jackson, a tenor heavyweight and alumnus of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, kicked off the first set with “My Shining Hour.” Savage accompanied the saxes, guitars and Sherman’s keys, playing off the soloist’s rhythmical patterns. Turner’s gentle, mellifluous tone wowed the audience and elicited gentle responses from the rhythm section. Aldana’s more muscular approach wowed the crowd.

The second set featured Terri Lyne Carrington and Ralph Peterson on drums, Kevin Eubanks on guitar and Jake Sherman on Hammond organ, as well as the sax lineup from the first set.

Pierce started the set with an up-tempo Tony Williams tune, “Warrior.” On the drums, Carrington kicked up the intensity a notch, with rhythmic patterns that showcased Pierce’s virtuosity. Carrington ended the tune with a rollicking solo, backed by Sherman on the organ.

On the ballad “My One and Only Love,” Pierce began with an extended improvisation that led into the melody of the ballad. Playing without drums or keys, Pierce and a subdued Eubanks showed off the rapport the two have forged over years of playing together, going back to their time in Art Blakey’s legendary 1980 big band.

Next came the sole Pierce-authored tune of the set, “Sudan Blue,” a hard-driving blues number. “Alter Ego,” penned by the late James Williams, who intersected with Pierce at Berklee and in the Messengers, featured solos from Aldana and Turner, whose soft-touch approach temporarily quieted Carrington’s intensity.

On Victor Lewis’s “Hey, It’s Me You’re Talking To,” Hart and Jackson joined the set on sax. Peterson took over on the drums, punctuating his playing with press rolls and bass drum hits that kept the soloists from staying too long in a groove.

On the last tune, Joe Henderson’s “Finale ¾ Homestretch,” Peterson traded fours with the sax players before taking his final drum solo.

The audience, which included many of Pierce’s former students and colleagues from Berklee, as well as luminaries from the local Boston jazz scene, responded to the band’s concluding number with a standing ovation. The concert marks the end of a chapter for Pierce, who has taught on-and-off at Berklee since 1976. But his departure from Berklee does not in any way signal a retirement. Pierce continues to gig with Eubanks and other jazz luminaries. His next Boston date, Oct. 11, will be at Scullers Jazz Club with the Ralph Peterson-helmed Messenger Legacy Band, featuring alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, trumpeter Brian Lynch, pianist Geoff Keezer and bassist Essiet Essiet.