| Jazz |
Mark Sherman’s “Bop Contest”: A Familiar Bebop Reunion, with Ron Carter’s Bass as the Guiding Light.
By any measure, bebop is not new. It has been the lingua franca of jazz for nearly eight decades, a style that first roared out of postwar New York in the hands of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Max Roach. For generations of musicians who followed, bop has been both a proving ground and a sanctuary, a way to demonstrate technical command while paying homage to the architects of modern jazz.
Vibraphonist Mark Sherman knows this history intimately. With Bop Contest, his 22nd album as a leader, Sherman leans unapologetically into bebop’s familiar cadences. The record is not revolutionary, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, it offers something else: the comfort of seasoned musicians returning to a repertoire that still carries a charge for players and listeners alike. From the opening track, this is music that calls back to a golden era, less concerned with novelty than with continuity.
Sherman himself has been both prolific and versatile. Trained as a drummer, he built a reputation as a pianist across a string of acclaimed recordings in the 2010s. But here he returns to his first love, the vibraphone, an instrument that, in the wrong hands, can risk sounding like a relic of mid-century jazz clubs. His decision to focus once more on vibes is at once nostalgic and ambitious, a bid to reclaim space in a field that has grown more adventurous thanks to players like Sasha Berliner, Joel Ross, and Stefon Harris.
That context is important, because vibraphone music in 2025 doesn’t sound like it did even ten years ago. Sasha Berliner, in particular, has remapped the instrument’s possibilities, pushing beyond its cool, bell-like tones toward textures more aligned with contemporary improvisation and experimentalism. By contrast, Sherman’s approach feels decidedly classical. His sound is clean, precise, technically unimpeachable, but at times almost too respectful of the tradition to surprise. For listeners hungry for the shock of the new, Bop Contest may not fully resonate. Yet for others, it’s very conservatism is its strength: a reminder of why bebop still matters.
The personnel assembled here is first-rate. Pianist Donald Vega brings elegance to every phrase; drummer Carl Allen is crisp and unerring; guest trumpeter Joe Magnarelli supplies warmth and lyricism. And then there is Ron Carter, a figure whose presence alters the entire dynamic of the recording. Carter’s bass is not simply another instrument in the mix; it is a voice of history itself. Having played on over 2,000 sessions, he remains the most recorded bassist in jazz history. To hear him here, at 88, is to be reminded of what endurance and artistry mean in practice. His lines anchor the ensemble with grace and authority, shaping the record in ways subtle but decisive.
Indeed, after multiple listens, it is Carter’s contributions that linger longest. His playing carries a kind of narrative weight: a reminder of the Miles Davis Quintet of the 1960s, of his work with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, and countless others. Carter has become more than a musician, he is a symbol of jazz’s continuity, the rare artist who embodies both past and present. His presence alone is enough to make Bop Contest essential for devotees.
The repertoire reflects Sherman’s deep respect for the tradition. Oliver Nelson’s under-recorded 111-44, first heard on the 1961 Straight Ahead, gets a bright and tight rendering. Two Cedar Walton compositions, Bremond’s Blues (1987) and Martha’s Prize (1996), are brought back into circulation, linking Sherman directly to a pianist-composer whose work has often been overshadowed by his peers. Sherman also takes a risk with My One and Only Love, transforming it from a tender ballad into a lightly swaying bossa nova, a move that feels both refreshing and respectful. The closing track, a self-overdubbed duet on Hoagy Carmichael’s Skylark, stands as Sherman’s most personal moment, a reminder of his multi-instrumental range and his willingness to break the ensemble format for something more intimate.
Even the album’s title carries a touch of cultural playfulness. Bop Contest was lifted from a 1950s episode of Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners, a favorite show of both Sherman and Magnarelli. In that episode, Ralph Kramden scolds his wife Alice for wanting to relive their youth by roller-skating and entering dance contests. For Sherman, the reference works on two levels: a wink to his collaborator and a fitting metaphor for his first attempt at composing in a strict bebop idiom. It suggests that even in reverence, there is room for humor.
Still, the album is not without its limitations. Those who have followed the new directions of jazz vibraphone, its expanded harmonic palette, its integration into electronic textures and post-bop atmospheres, may find Sherman’s playing almost too traditional. There is little here that breaks ground or unsettles expectation. But perhaps that is the point. Bop Contest is not an avant-garde experiment or a manifesto of modern jazz. It is, quite deliberately, a gathering of masters in a room, doing what they know best.
Will the album change the direction of jazz? Certainly not. But to judge it on those terms misses its deeper appeal. Bop Contest offers something subtler: the reassurance that the bebop tradition remains alive, not only in the notes played but in the relationships among musicians who have carried it forward for decades. And in Ron Carter’s hands especially, that tradition becomes more than nostalgia, it becomes a living, breathing sound, as vital in 2025 as it was in 1965. For many listeners, that is enough.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, October 2nd 2025
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To buy this album (November 7)
Musicians :
Mark Sherman, vibraphone
Donald Vega, piano
Carl Allen, drums
Joe Magnarelli, trumpet
Ron Carter, double bass
Track Listing :
111-44
Love Always Always Love
Bremond’s Blues
My One And Only Love
Bop Contest
Martha’s Prize
Skylark