Cover Photo: Glen O’Fallon plays bass to “Happy Birthday” while patrons sing along behind him. Cooper’s Corner, Winfield, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
By Dominic Guanzon
Thursday 4/20/23
Cooper’s Corner is the least 4/20 spot you could imagine for a jazz trio to play. Upon walking in, a row of white collar wise guys at the bar were doing their best impersonation of blue collar buddies as the Cubs-Dodgers game began. In the carpeted half of the restaurant, a large birthday party had booked the entire room as beer pitchers passed up and down the tables. The biggest local celebrities there may have been Pam and Ernie from Mamie’s Toffee & Treats, and they were excited about the prospect of selling their own toffee-flavored ice cream from their minibus-turned-snack van.
Here in Winfield, a neighbor to fellow hardcore towns such as Wheaton and Warrenville, the stakes don’t feel as high as Chicago. The patrons aren’t either, but about as many drinks were getting tossed around.
Regardless, the Beyond Standards Trio had a gig here, and they didn’t let the increasingly red-faced crowd shouting at the TVs get in the way of their music.
Trevor Joe Hill. Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Trevor Joe Hill (ts) has well-studied chops. In tandem with his imposing lean and watchful stare, it was obvious Wayne Shorter was in his vocabulary. The trio pulled out a number of Shorter compositions in a tribute to his passing earlier that year. These included their set opener, “Footprints,” as well as “Lost,” “Yes and No,” and the ever-intense “Armageddon.”
It was on “Straight No Chaser” I also noticed Hill almost gasping for air afterwards, taking to heart the adage of always playing as if it was your last.
With those hard-hitters in mind, the trio appeared not to be playing to the crowd. This may be why the audience needed a little kickstart in the clapping department, but a healthy cadre of friends and fans were present to keep things going.
As a Cubs game overshadowed Hill on a TV screen hung high on the wall, a vertical signage monitor with rotating ads sentried drummer Diego Rodriguez. Ads included a Mother’s Day brunch, the drink menu, odds for the next few baseball games, and a flyer for Cinco de Mayo night. I caved and ordered the fried calamari.
Hill announced the next song “I Called It Was” just as the Cubs-Dodgers game started and the bar began to rile up. The original composition by Hill featured a cool and clear melody over a two-chord vamp, as Rodriguez skated on a quick groove that almost felt like it was mimicking the “Amen break” of the drum and bass genre.
Hill also showcased two more original compositions: “Long Gone Alley” and “Turtle Beach,” the latter of which is available on Bandcamp with steel pan.
“When I was in Florida, I had some time off to write. I was on the beach, and I was gonna run out into the ocean late at night, when I see this giant turtle lift up. I was like ‘oh shit!'” Hill said of the piece. “My mother and I watched it bury its eggs and swim back into the shore. I was inspired by the fact I saw a sea turtle out in nature instead of at the zoo. [It was] in its environment, with us, which is where animals should be.”
Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Playing jazz without a chordal instrument (piano, guitar, etc), can be a unique approach with a special technical challenge if one isn’t used to it. In 1957, Sonny Rollins recorded the album “Way Out West” with only him, Ray Brown on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums and cymbals. In a 2019 interview with JazzTimes’ Lee Mergner, Rollins discussed this “strolling” method:
“I played with some great pianists during my career, but a pianist by definition leads the horn players, because of the chords and volume and everything—the presence of a piano. I like more freedom, so that if I wanted to go from this chord to that chord, I didn’t have somebody dictate to me, “You have to go from a B to an E here, and I’m going to make it so loud and prominent that you’ll have to do it.” To me that was a little constricting. I always loved the idea that if I could get a rhythm section—a drummer for the rhythm and the bass player for the basic harmony—then I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do. Which was perfect for me.”
Sonny Rollins
The stripped-down instrumentation had surely been done before out of necessity in jams and gigs across the country. Five years before in 1952, Gerry Mulligan recruited Chet Baker to form what is now known as the pianoless quintet, and the two horn players bounced off of one another to build melodies in the in/out heads and in their solos.
Rollins abstains from a second horn entirely, and by focusing all his listening to the bass and drums, Rollins helped to impress that sound into a more concerted method on the 1957 album as well as “Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard” the next year.
“It wasn’t for economic reasons,” notes Rollins, “I just liked the sound.”
The Beyond Standards Trio at Cooper’s Corner seemed to be following this tradition. Whether it was by necessity or not, I’m not sure, but it was a bold move regardless given the noisy room that was half-paying attention.
Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Eventually, the trio did hit on more crowd-friendly standards like “All The Things You Are” and “Caravan.”
On the latter, I always look forward to seeing what the drummer does on this tune, you can derive so much personality from the choices they make, almost as if it was a solo. In Rodriguez’s case, it was never letting up completely on the swing of the afro-Cuban beat.
Bassist Glen O’Fallon proves to have one of the best ears in a rhythm section. Or rather, at least, making it well-known that he’s listening, and proving it by making every resultant choice seem like an innovation. I swear I could almost hear Glen play more aggressively after someone at the bar yelled at the TV to “do the play you son of a bitch!”
Diego Rodriguez (left, d) and Glen O’Fallon (right, b). Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
During a break in the playing, someone from the large, 40-person birthday party going on in the other half of the restaurant spoke to Trevor for a moment. This led to the trio playing Happy Birthday, complete with saxophone flourishes, as the fabric divider opened up to reveal another dozen people. The entire bar seemed to join in, and as the final notes of the restaurant-favorite song came to a close, the trio then went into “St. Thomas.”
“We kind of put joy first in our music. It’s called playing music!” Hill told me afterwards.
Perhaps it wasn’t exactly the way the great Sonny Rollins would envision it – a typical Winfield crowd celebrating someone’s 60th birthday (give or take) does contrast with the folk songs of the 1930s Virgin Islands – but it did make everyone happy, much like “that “St. Thomas” always does.
Also, Trevor quoted the “Ground Theme” from Super Mario World in his solo, so I think by then everyone was on board.
A birthday surprise. Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
One of the ballads played was the well-known “Misty,” signaling the band would be winding down the night. This prompted an older couple to stand up for seemingly the first time that evening, and dance in the open floor just in front of the band.
I get to experience the incredible privilege of witnessing Chicago’s best and brightest, in spaces that love and adore them, and among people that know their art. And I get to do it almost all the time. Such is the magic of the greatest city. To find my favorite art in a place that may not fully appreciate it is humbling. But it is much-needed, as here in the heart of suburbia is a pair of souls willing to join together, for each other and for the music. Because of the music, live in all its presence, they get to come alive a little more.
There is no big city tonight, but there is love.
A couple dances to the trio’s rendition of “Misty.” Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Cooper’s Corner is not an artist’s haven. I have visited it numerous times, for many occasions, but odds are low it will be the next Cafe Bohemia. Cooper’s Corner is an honest spot, which is as good as you’re gonna get in the suburbs of DuPage.
I parsed the crowd for their stories once the band ended. Talking to Pam and Ernie, I quickly discover that everyone in the first half of the restaurant- from the dancing elders to Pam and Ernie themselves – are literally one big family, and had timed the party for Trevor’s gig at the restaurant.
The couple dancing to “Misty,” it turns out, were his grandparents.
“Trevor always has to play one for us,” the grandmother told me, “55 years in August [being married].”
Beyond Standards Trio is:
Trevor Joe Hill (ts)
Glen O’Fallon (b)
Diego Rodriguez (d)
You can find Trevor Joe Hill on Bandcamp.
Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Cooper’s Corner, 4/20/23. Photo by Dominic Guanzon.
Blue Collar Jazz 
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