IU alum's jazz band hits a high note

The Kyle Quass group brought its inventive but traditional jazz sounds to Jazz Fables on Thursday to play a tribute concert to master trumpeter Woody Shaw.\nLead by IU Jazz Studies alum Quass, the band also features Mark Tuttle on saxophone, Cory Smythe on piano, Brain Holtz, bass, Bryson Kern, drums, Tyron Cooper, leader of the IU Soul Revue, on guitar and vocals, and Jazz Fables organizer David Miller on trumpet.\nThe group opened with "Eastern Joy Dance," a tune which featured Cooper on scat vocals and Quass' elegant trumpet playing. Cooper and Quass ended the song in harmony, producing a neat sound combining vocals and trumpet.\n"Zoltan," a march by the composer of the same name, featured superb solos from both Quass and Smythe before returning to the march theme to end the song.\n"Katrina Ballerina" showcased Cooper's guitar interplay with the horn section. Cooper's solo was filled with octaves a la Wes Montgomery as well as a wonderful bluesy, tremolo-picked ending which fed into a sax solo from Tuttle.\n"The Moontrane," a tune written by Shaw when he was just 18 years old as a tribute to sax great John Coltrane, provided a thorough workout for bassist Holtz, who was making his first appearance at Jazz Fables. Smythe's solo featured a cool mix of rhythmic bursts, atonal runs and quick arpeggios, while Miller's trumpet solo covered comfortable ground in unfamiliar and entertaining ways.\n"Think On Me," a song by George Cables and covered by Shaw, was a relaxed groove full of late-night swing. It featured a short but sweet bass solo from Holtz, as well as Quass' best solo of the night, which ended the song and closed the first set.\n"Lotus Flower" opened the band's second set, with more great solos from Smythe and Quass and a wonderful scat vocal from Cooper.\n"Little Red's Fantasy" featured a bluesy colorful solo from Tuttle and more of Smythe's rhythmic madness -- which at times was a bit too much -- but nonetheless mostly enjoyable and certainly showed Smythe's depth of talent on the piano. The song also featured a perfect mild solo from Miller before a soft Quass solo melted into a tour de force on trumpet that delivered time and time again, leaving no doubt to the extent of talent and taste from Quass.\nQuass and company finished with "Sunbath" from Shaw's 1975 album "Love Dance." The song featured a monster groove, started out by the guitar and bass and featuring incredible interplay between them and drummer Kern. \nA good trumpet solo from Miller was followed by a funky, bluesy and exotic guitar solo from Cooper, who used those Wes-like octaves in a most intriguing way. Quass and Tuttle both had long and intense solos before Smythe took his last solo of the night, which turned out to be his best.\nSmythe went from quoting Cooper's guitar to churning in another awesome groove, which he then burst out of in a flurry of notes, shoulder muscles bulging from beneath his shirt and feet pounding the floor along with the beat. The band then rejoined in full swing and closed the song and the show.\nOverall, the performances were well-done and exciting. For those who were there, the evening was another memorable one full of great jazz presented by Jazz Fables.