Go on blow the blues away partying like it's 1959. While Mestizo released approaching 12 months ago is better (the addition of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin made all the difference) this from US tenorist Diego Rivera and an otherwise identical line-up is pleasant and optimistic inhabiting the language of hard bop so naturally.
Rivera is big on melodic paraphrase and can do scurrying, scrabbling run in his sleep especially when behind him Stacey Kent pianist Art Hirahara, the Mingus Big Band bassist Boris Kozlov and the Frisellian drummer Rudy Royston superb this last year with JD Allen's latest Americana meditations, are so dependable in their swingmatism.
Pick of the album is easily a version of Horace Silver's 'Peace', a classic that in recent years on the live London scene Joey Curreri has delivered so well. The Love & Peace take on John Coltrane's 'Alabama' however needs even more gravity for an even greater outcome.
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