Review: Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens: In Common at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival

The Canadian-born guitarist and American saxophonist led a quartet that made stirring, contemporary jazz at their Ottawa Jazz Festival show.

Published Jul 03, 2023 • 3 minute read

Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens: In Common at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival. Photo by Daniel Nawrocki

Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens: In Common
June 29, 9 p.m., NAC Fourth Stage
at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival

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Tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III and guitarist Matthew Stevens, two world-class jazz musicians in their early 40s, who have been friends for almost half their lives. Smith, who is from Houston, Texas, and Stevens, who is from Toronto, knew each other at the Berklee College of Music in Boston two decades ago. A few years after graduating, they were in the band of trumpeter Christian Scott.

In recent years, Smith and Steven have only grown closer musically. Since 2018, they have made three albums as part of their In Common project. While they, of course, appear on each of the recordings, the featured bands supporting them have all been different. The point, presumably, is to showcase their compositions and bond, but with the varied stimulations of peers as great as pianists Kris Davis or Micah Thomas, or drummers Marcus Gilmore, Nate Smith or Teri Lyne Carrington.

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After hearing Smith and Stevens in Ottawa, I and others at the NAC Fourth Stage would certainly nominate bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Kendrick Scott for the next recorded installment of In Common. That bass-and-drums team pitched in faultlessly to make surging contemporary jazz enlivened by sparkling, incisive solos.

Here’s the set list for that 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival show.

Loping (Stevens)
Adam’s Apple (Wayne Shorter)
Unsung (Stevens)
Capital Wasteland (Smith)
Blues (Smith)
Lotto (Stevens)

Encore:
ACE (Smith)

Stevens, Smith, Rogers and Scott often extracted the maximum from compositions that, relatively speaking, have less complexity and details to execute than some of the longer, more dense, content-rich material that they might play in other contexts. Check out Smith’s excellent latest album, Return to Casual, and its deluxe, heroic opener, Contra, for some more involved and even maximalist music. Stevens’ steely guitar is also part of its mix. But as Smith recently told Downbeat magazine: “The songs for In Common are supposed to be just one page or two pages, and sight-readable.”

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That user-friendly material made for music that the musicians could quickly sink their teeth into and which listeners instantly found compelling.

Guitarist Matthew Stevens at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival. Photo by Daniel Nawrocki Daniel Nawrock /jpg

Loping, by Stevens, was a plaintive, minor-key tune in 3/4 that was a perfect launch pad for deep explorations. Adam’s Apple, which followed, was both a bluesy boogaloo and a salute to its titanic composer, Wayne Shorter, who left this world this spring. Stevens’ loose-limbed mid-tempo swinger Unsung had more harmonic twists and turns. Smith’s straight-eighths tune Capital Wasteland was a pretty piece that grew from its lyrical opening strains to become more impassioned.

Saxophonist Walter Smith III at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival. Photo by Daniel Nawrocki

Steven’s tune Lotto, by turns catchy and stirringly anthemic, was one more springboard for rousing solos by the band’s co-leaders, prompted by Rogers and especially Scott, who once again was a constantly churning, perpetual motion machine at his drum kit.

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Drummer Kendrick Scott of Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens: In Common at the 2023 Ottawa Jazz Festival Photo by Daniel Nawrocki

Despite its generic title, Smith’s sprinting tune Blues led to fast, involved improvising. ACE, a waltzing encore by Smith that included some classical cadences and a catchy beat, wrapped the concert up in a bow.

Outside of In Common, Stevens and Smith are busy. This summer will see Stevens on tour with Esperanza Spalding and Christian Scott, among others. Smith spent much of last month in Europe with drummer Bill Stewart’s trio, and he will be in Italy in a month’s time.

But the saxophonist and guitarist have too much in common to be separated for too long. For their ongoing exploits, jazz fans should be thankful.

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