Roger Humphries – drums; Lou Stellute – tenor sax; Ron Horton – trumpet; Jeff Lashway – keys; Dwayne Dolphin – bass
Currently, Roger Humphries is one of the biggest names in the Pittsburgh jazz scene. He is best known for playing and recording with Horace Silver in the 60’s, including on Silver’s Song For My Father album on Blue Note. His quintet called RH Factor played a well-attended free show at Riverview Park in Pittsburgh’s Observatory Hill section as part of the Citipark’s “Stars at Riverview Jazz Series“.
There were multiple reasons why I wanted to go to this show tonight. The biggest of which being that I have never seen RH Factor. I’ve seen Roger Humphries play but it wasn’t with his own quintet. Another big reason was that I knew that he was not going to play the smooth, R&B infused, fluffy stuff that several other Pittsburgh jazz groups would play at something like this. With that being said, these guys didn’t really venture too far out of the box either. It was just some really well executed Blue Note era post-bop style jazz and I really enjoyed it. One more reason for driving out to Observatory Hill tonight was that I knew Lou Stellute would be playing sax and he always kills. At most jazz shows, etiquette states that the audience politely claps after each solo out of respect for the musicians. Stellute is one of those guys that consistently plays solos that you REALLY want to clap for.
Some highlights from the set included Miles Davis’ “So Near So Far” from the Seven Steps To Heaven LP and Joe Henderson’s “Inner Urge” from his album of the same name. Here is a video I shot of the last song of the set, Eddie Harris’ “Cold Duck Time“. It’s hard to see the band because of the distance from the stage but the sound is OK. Enjoy.
JAZZ ORBITS 