Two jazz awards honor album by Pacific's Brubeck quintet

By Tony Sauro, Record Staff Writer, May 02, 2013 - 12:00 AM
The word "unit" has multiple meanings in the music business.

A "unit" is an object for sale. It's also the objective of most musical groups.

"It's very heart-warming," said Simon Rowe. "It's thrilling to watch young musicians grow into a group. That's one of the big distinctions. They've really formed into a cohesive unit. The total result is greater than the sum of its parts."

Once again, that's added up to national praise from DownBeat magazine, the monthly publication that's monitored the world of jazz since 1934.

The Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, part of a University of the Pacific program that Rowe directs, has been recognized twice by the 36th annual DownBeat Student Music Awards poll in its June edition.

"Origins," recorded in two versions by succeeding quintet alignments, leads two DownBeat undergraduate lists.

The original recording, co-produced in January 2012 by Nick Fryer, a Pacific instructor, and Joe Gilman, and "Origins V," produced by Rowe and Gilman in November 2012, won in the college jazz-group category. They were recorded at Pacific and released on the university's Pac Ave label.

"It's certainly a very nice honor," said Rowe, a jazz pianist and former record-label owner who's in his third year as Brubeck Institute director. "There's always some subjectivity. 

What's convincing is the consistency. It shows a pattern of support for good work. Our groups were neck-and-neck with each other."

It's the first time a Brubeck quintet has won two DownBeat awards in the same year. The groups have won seven overall.

The guys guided by Rowe, Fryer and Gilman, a pianist who teaches at Sacramento's American River College: Thomas Kelley (alto saxophone) from Canton, Conn.; Rane Roatta (tenor sax) from Miami, Fla.; Paul Bloom (piano) from Needham, Mass.; Adam Goldman (bass) from Pacific Palisades; and Malachi Whitson (drums) from Richmond.

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