From 2015. Recorded in New Jersey last year after a string of New York club dates, this Anglo-American affair – with trumpeter Steve Fishwick, tenorist Osian Roberts, baritone player Frank Basile, pianist Jeb Paton, bassist Mike Karn and drummer Matt Fishwick – is a bustling hard bop affair with gutsy horn playing and lively drumming. Like latter-day Jazz Messengers, the album opens with Fishwick original ‘Jymie’ (dedicated to former Messenger Jymie Merritt) and includes originals by the three co-leaders and a sprinkling of standards including a Fishwick arrangement of ‘How Deep is the Ocean.’
There’s a strong retro feeling here and a love and passion for the jazz of the 1950s and 60s steeped above all in the Blakey tradition.
It won’t change the world, but there’s plenty here to appeal to hard bop fans, the authenticity and respect for the style first and foremost in all these swinging players’ minds. SG
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