This post is by Dan
Recorded June 22, 1989
Born in 1954, Jay Hoggard has led a successful artistic and academic career. His first recordings from 1979 appear on two very different labels: Solo Vibraphone on India Navigation, and Days Like These on GRP. Most of his albums are joyful and spiritually uplifting, celebrating the positive side of human experience. His most recent album is a 2-CD set named Harlem Hieroglyphs (JHVM, 2016) and will soon be followed by Raise Your Spirit Consciousness (JHVM, 2023).
Overview represents Hoggard's commitment to more straightforward jazz, perhaps as a reconciliation of his prior experimental and pop-jazz projects. Having engaged a variety of styles, he felt the need to be regarded as a mainstream jazz player, an identity that he has sustained ever since.
With Geri Allen, Frederick Waits and Ed Rozie backing his vibes excursions, Hoggard turns in a superlative performance. "Put on a Happy Face" leads off the set, expressing Hoggard's optimism and positive outlook. The title tune is about surveying terrain from mountain tops, and by metaphoric extension, taking an overview of one's professional and artistic terrain. The personal overview continues on the rest of the album, which contains a Tjaderesque Latin number ("Aguacate"), a blues dedicated to Milt Jackson, Monk's "Ruby, My Dear" featuring Allen, and the closing "Convergence," which is reminiscent of the thunderous encounters of Bobby Hutcherson and McCoy Tyner. Clearly, the overview includes gratitude to other jazz musicians who served as inspirations.
Almost all of Hoggard's music has to mean something beyond the obvious. While that may be true for most jazz, it's more pronounced for Hoggard. It's part of his academic mindset as a musicologist, but also part of his role as a moral agent in the world. Higher education is a calling to make positive differences in the lives of other people, and Hoggard responds to that calling through his teaching and performances.
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