
Trumpeter Justin Ray performs with the Ziad Jazz Quartet at the Bechtler. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLOTTE, NC – Even if it were a normal year, if Hurricane Helene hadn’t devastated Western North Carolina, it would be a stretch to liken the landing of Asheville trumpeter Justin Ray at the annual Bechtler Museum Holiday Jazz celebration to an early Christmas visit from jolly old St. Nick. Yet the audience at Charlotte’s famed modern art museum welcomed Ray’s playing – with the resident Ziad Jazz Quartet – as a treasurable holiday gift. You would even say he slayed.
Ray not only brought his trumpet but also a plumper plunger, his flugelhorn. Another visitor from Asheville, drummer Justin Watt, meshed beautifully with the quartet, featuring Noel Freidline at electric piano, bassist Ron Brendle, and saxophonist Ziad Rabie leading the combo on tenor and soprano. Unlike the October edition of Jazz at the Bechtler, the QR code accessible at each table in the Bechtler lobby worked properly, bringing up a digital program naming the instrumentalists and the songs.
Digital assistance was mostly unnecessary for recognizing the tunes, beginning with Nicholas Payton‘s arrangement of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Along with Roy Hargrove and Herb Alpert, Payton was one of three trumpeters credited with the Yuletide charts. The arranging skills of saxophonist Brian Lenair were also on display, an indication that both Ray and Rabie had strong influences on the evening’s program.

Trumpeter Justin Ray. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
Ray and Rabie alternated in introducing “Rudolph,” with Rabie on tenor sax taking over at the “Foggy Christmas” bridge. On the other side, Ray took out the melody and launched his first blistering solo. Such gleeful playing was tough to upstage, but Rabie and Freidline kept pace with their solos, barreling into a satisfying out chorus. “Christmas Time Is Here,” one of three arrangements on loan from Lenair’s A Saxy Christmas album, slowed the revels down to midtempo as both Ray and Rabie switched instruments, the trumpeter picking up his flugelhorn while the leader sounded a bit Kenny G-ish on soprano sax. Thankfully, none of the live performances sounded as saccharine as the 2008 studio track. Even with the mellower sound of Ray’s flugelhorn leading off the arrangement, the silken abyss of Lenair’s smooth jazz was averted as our Asheville visitor and Rabie handed off to each other at eight-bar intervals until Ray launched the first solo. Freidline, who had heroically avoided the syrupy synthesizer sound of the studio version, followed with a meaty solo of his own before Rabie excelled, more Grover Washington-like than Kenny G.
Foreshadowing the ecumenical spirit of the “Multi-Cultural Medley” to come, the Roy Hargrove arrangement of “Frosty the Snowman” doled out solo space to all the players on the Bechtler stage. Brendle bravely followed the sparkle of Ray, Rabie, and Freidline with an admirably melting oration of his own before Watt bashed his way into the spotlight, returning fire to eight-bar salvos from trumpet, tenor sax, piano, and trumpet before the rousing out chorus. Opening the “Medley,” Rabie leaned more explicitly toward Kenny G with his version – not Adam Sandler’s – of “The Chanukah Song.” Ray returned to the bandstand after this soprano sax showcase as Freidline prefaced his jazzy adaptation of “The Dreidel Song” with a piano quip before sax and trumpet shared the melody, first individually and then in unison. The pulse of the quintet quickened again for “Eidun Saeed,” which is traced easily enough to multiple celebrations on Spotify (in English!), and way more for “Karma Kwanzaa,” a title that didn’t yield a single hit on any of my streaming services. Maybe the tempo is too quick to be recorded.

Saxophonist, Ziad Rabie. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
With political correctness duly attained and technical dazzle now manifest, it was time for Rabie and Ray to soulfully deepen the spirit in the second half of their set. Curiously enough, it was Alpert and Lorber who first gave an inkling that the sleighbell jollity of “Winter Wonderland” could be blissfully wedded to the hypnotic riff from Miles Davis’ indelible “All Blues.” This was a double revelation, for Ray pulled out a mute from somewhere and evoked the cool Davis sound on his classic Kind of Blue album. Rabie could have opted for tenor sax, the instrument John Coltrane brought to the 1959 studio sessions, but he played soprano instead. The legendary harmony still emerged when the horns blended, and the mist they conjured up was apt for applying a foggy wrapping around the “Wonderland” melody. Rabie and Freidline followed Ray in the soloing.
The final two selections returned us to a couple of innovative gems from A Saxy Christmas, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Without bringing an electric guitar onstage, the Ziad rhythm section was able to replicate the funkiness that Lenair brought to his take on the “Merry Gentlemen.” Ray’s trumpet and Rabie’s tenor sax also turned up the heat in solos that sandwiched Freidline’s. While it may have seemed a bit of an oxymoron for Rabie to promise to take “Come All Ye Faithful” to church, the quintet’s performance validated Rabie’s build-up. Ray picked up his flugelhorn for this final gathering while Rabie continued to blaze on tenor sax. If the live version at the Bechtler lacked the righteous background vocals of Lenair’s studio jewel, it was no less sanctified by the passion of the players and the approval of the audience.