- Herlin Riley: drums
- Emmet Cohen: piano
- Russell Hall: bass
- Godwin Louis: alto saxophone
- Bruce Harris: trumpet
I’m always happy to hear from Herlin Riley. He is one of the young lions that came to the cutting edge of jazz in the 80s alongside the likes of Wynton Marsalis. He’s in his sixties now and lists the names of five children and ten grandchildren in his liner notes. Wow! This makes me feel old… Another thing about the recording that got my attention was the unfamiliar names. I don’t know any of these band members so I was obviously eager to hear them.
Once I actually got into the listening I was a bit surprised and mildly disappointed by the shallowness of the soundstage. The trumpet is frequently muted, but even when playing open, it just doesn’t have much depth. The alto sax is an inherently tinny sounding instrument so I can’t really fault this recording. But I was longing for a deeper, richer sound as I went thru this CD.
Many of the tunes are kind of bouncy, with a medium-fast tempo and lots of 1 and 3 drumming. Nothing wrong with that… in fact it’s the signature sound of people as famous and prolific as Art Blakey. There are a couple of ballads mixed in, which is surely needed here. The title cut is uptempo but has a somewhat complex time signature which makes it interesting. Towards the end of the CD there are suddenly a couple of distinctly funky sounding tunes, providing a welcome mood shift. Then we get to the final two tunes… and what can I say… these two tunes sound like they are in a completely different category than everything else on this recording. First, Stella By Starlight, a standard and a classic that was penned in the 1940s and has stood the test of time over and over again. It’s the first and only cut featuring just the rhythm section and it just oozes with authenticity. So rich, so deep, and so refined! This is great stuff. And then the CD concludes with the Ellis Marsalis classic, Twelve’s It. The horns return on this one but once again, it is fantastic. The composition, the arrangement, the swing… it’s all there in abundance. Even the horns sound deeper and more rooted on this tune. At the very end there is a rather unnecessary attempt at a rapping homage to Ellis Marsalis. But it’s OK. I still love this tune and this particular recording of it. So all in all, not the most satisfying CD, but not bad either. I could listen to this entire CD again and probably will before too long. But I think some of Riley’s earlier CDs were better.
Jim's Jazz Notes 