Latest releases reviewed
SONNY STITT Work Done HighNote ***
This is a previously unreleased session of the kind the great tenor and alto must have done thousands of times - a live date with a pickup backing. The time was San Francisco in 1976, and the local support came from Bay Area regulars Ed Kelly (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Smiley Winters (drums). The repertoire - blues, standards, a Parker original - was predictable, but Stitt sounds really engaged, playing with great fire and virtuosity throughout and seldom yielding to cliche. He got very capable support from the rhythm section, which must have encouraged him, and the only blemish on an otherwise fine recording quality is the booming bass sound, which tilts the balance somewhat out of kilter. But it's Stitt in very good form.
Ray Comiskey
TOMMY SMITH Forbidden Fruit Spartacus ****
Although the influence of the Coltrane Quartet can be felt in Smith's young Scottish group, it's hardly a debilitating one; quite the reverse, since both the leader and his colleagues have a liberated approach as much to do with their own cultural experiences as anything else. Smith wrote the music, which he fixed around the conflict of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, so it reflects the drama, contrast, romantic innocence and betrayal of that fable. It does so superbly, with the leader sounding fresh and inventive on tenor and soprano, and the others - Steve Hamilton (piano), Aidan O'Donnell (bass) and Ayln Cosker (drums) - equally impressive and contributing with seamless brilliance to the ensuing dialogue. Www.spartacusrecords.com
Ray Comiskey
RANDY SANDKE Trumpet After Dark Evening Star ****
Subtitled "Jazz in a meditative mood", there's nothing here faster than a calm medium tempo, but it allows the trumpeter to explore another facet of his diverse musicality. The basic unit is a quartet of similarly open-minded players completed by Bill Charlap (piano), Greg Cohen (bass) and Dennis Mackrel (drums), augmented by the unusual tonal qualities of viola da gamba string quartet Parthenia, all deployed with persuasive nous by Sandke. He wrote most of the music; the rest comes from such as Strayhorn, Monk, Mal Waldron, 1920s pianist Frank Signorelli, Chopin and Dowland. Sandke and Charlap, who share the solo burden, play with compelling authority, but what is also striking about the results, apart from the tonal climate the viols bring, is the beauty and lyric unity created out of such richly varied sources. www.lpb.com/eveningstar
Ray Comiskey
