SAXOPHONIST GARY BARTZ is an unfashionable age (55), hails from an unfashionable city (Baltimore) and has an unfashionable attitude (he believes jazz is not superior to black pop music but inextricably connected to it). These circumstances have denied him recognition as one of today's most gifted jazz artists, but he has made a series of stunning albums over the past eight years and "The Blues Chronicles: Tales of Life" is the latest.
This is ostensibly a concept album that explores the blues in all its manifestations, but Bartz isn't so strict about the premise that he can't find room for a lovely soprano sax reading of Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets." Bartz treats Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" as freely as Sonny Rollins does his calypsos, and Bartz's own '60s soul vamp, inexplicably titled "Gangsta Jazz," evolves seamlessly from punchy horn riffs to Coltranesque solos on alto sax. Bartz's "And He Called Himself a Messenger," a tribute to his former employer Art Blakey, is catchy hard-bop, while "One Million Blues" is a gut-bucket, 12-bar blues. Vocals are supplied on four numbers by vocalise pioneer Jon Hendricks, young rappers Nezkar Keith and Ransom and an actual street vendor, Maatkara Ali.
What holds this diverse material together is the forceful, joyful shout of Bartz's horn, which is never tentative in its vigorous self- assertion -- and that is the common element in all blues-based music. The leader's vibrant attack is reinforced by such fellow Baltimore musicians as pianists Cyrus Chestnut and George Colligan, trumpeter Tom Williams and drummer Greg Bandy. GARY BARTZ -- "The Blues Chronicles: Tales of Life" (Atlantic). Appearing Friday and Saturday at One Step Down with George Colligan and Wednesday at Blues Alley with Cindy Blackman. To hear a free Sound Bite from this album, call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8127. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.) CAPTION: Gary Bartz's horn has a forceful, joyful shout that is never tentative.