  by Dwight Hobbes
In February, Mint Condition front man, Stokley Williams, talked about a spin-off he and some cohorts had put together, a Latin jazz ensemble called Joto. It was him on drums with Mint’s Lawrence Waddell (keys) and Jeff Allen (sax), plus percussionist (and Stokley’s mentor) Wallace Hill and ace bassist Serge Akou (Kip Blackshire, Wain McFarlane & Jahz). He said something about wanting to stretch as artists.
He wasn’t kidding. Mint Condition is marvelous, sweetly funkified R&B. Hellified as that is, Joto presents a more challenging dimension. It’s very interesting to hear what Allen and Waddell can do outside a 4/4 time signature. Stokley is as tight a drummer as he is a vocalist (i.e. pretty damned tight). Akou and Hill are flawless. It began with woodshedding at Hill’s Drum and Art Center in South Minneapolis. The results were so encouraging, the fellas went ahead and did it for real, scaring up promoter Terrence Large to have their debut at his popular meet-market for upscale urbanites, First Friday.
Babalu is a bit more my speed when it comes to venues, where the intimate atmosphere
makes Joto’s sensual wizardry a natural fit. I had the fortune to bump
into Mahmoud El-Kati there; if it’s about the non-bougie black intelligentsia,
venerated griot Mahmoud is in the cut, wearing one of his funky hats. We sit
at his table, digging the pure hell out of Joto.
 The
sound is quintessential soul-sophisticato. Jeff Allen, alternating on tenor
and soprano sax, affords a sweet voice—inventive, refreshingly economic
phrasing (no “how many notes can I play at 90 miles an hour for 15 minutes”)
and a graceful, lilting touch that spellbinds. For the set, Joto does Juan Luis
Guerra’s “Para Ti,” Kenny Kirkland’s “Dienda,”
Chick Corea’s “Spain,” and Thelonius Monk’s classic
“’Round Midnight,”. It’s traditional ensemble fare the
guys richly enhance with original flavor. They even depart from the clichéd
solo spotlights. When it was Serge Akou’s turn to show off, it wasn’t
the routine of, “OK, everybody else stops and lets him play.” As
Akou finessed his way through a melodic tour de force, the others were right
there, underscoring him with a lush, layered backdrop.
Between sets they have time to talk, in the dining room, at one end of a mile-long
dinner table that is decked out to an elegant tee. To the question of whose
bright idea Joto was in the first place, Wallace Hill readily notes, “Stokley’s
the driving force. He’s the designated leader.” Hill then amends,
“On a good day.” Smiles all around. Everybody knows Stokley takes
care of business. However, everybody here also knows Stokley is not all the
way wrapped, that he harbors an inspired penchant for the zany. The object of
discussion good-naturedly takes his ribbing and sits back, paying, I swear to
God, serious attention. Lawrence Waddell fills in, “We all kind of just
said, ‘Hey, we wanna burn off some steam, musically.’ Wallace had
space at his drum shop for us to work out. The combo just jelled.” Hill
concurs, as the tape recorder starts getting passed hand-to-hand in the semi-huddle,
“The chemistry was real good among us all. We could read each other real
well, we could hear each other real clear and clean.”
Asked who influenced his distinct, compelling melodic lines, Jeff Allen answers,
“[There’s] no one, particular influence. My dad had a large jazz
collection when I was growing up. So, every Saturday morning, when we played
in the house, it was jazz all day. The stereo was off-limits to everybody else.”
Once he got interested in reeds, his programming was pretty much set. “I
picked up on a lot of that. Everyone from Dexter Gordon, all the way [to] Sonny
Rollins, John Coltrane. I’ve listened to everybody. But, now, what Joto’s
doin’, this is the first time I have had to be able to voice some of those
influences and put [them] out there. I’m pretty excited.”
He’s hardly by himself. The delighted crowd, which kept growing during
the set, was solidly with Joto from first note to last, even with one well-lubricated
and consequently loquacious loudmouth testing everyone’s patience. There
wasn’t any, “Oh, the number’s over, let me put down my drink
or my fork, politely clap and get back to my conversation.” Consistently,
it was about enthusiastic applause. Indications are Mint Condition’s got
itself a nice sideline going. ||
Joto throwdown just about every Tuesday night at Babalu.
800 Washington Ave. N. 612-746-3158.
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