You don't turn to a Greg Abate record for a cutting edge feeling or any sense of experimentation. What you do though is to transport yourself into a bebop universe you might before listening to Reunion have thought was consigned to live only among the records in your collection gathering dust on the shelf. Fear not on this live album you feel you are in a basement jazz club (it's actually a radio station but in front of an audience) with all the rituals and rites of a meeting of bebop practitioners lost in the music to the fore. Certainly you get gutsy saxophone from Abate and no-nonsense tunes, largely originals plus a cover of Charlie Parker's 'Quasimodo'. We caught Abate live a couple of years ago for the first time and got off on the dynamic passionate sound the American favours. And here Paul Del Nero on bass knows what such a thrusting player needs most - firm support that marks out the terrain that Abate needs to elaborate upon after throwing down clear melodic thematic statement before moving on to improvise around the themes. With a quartet completed by pianist Matt DeChamplain and drummer Gary Johnson there's plenty of swing and a positive feeling of purpose throughout - what's not to like? Let's hope Abate returns to play the UK again soon.
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