CD Review: Tony Lustig Quintet - Taking Flight.

Tony Lustig (bar/bs.clt); Mike Dease (tmb); Samora Pinderhughes (pno); Ben Williams (bs); Ulysses Owens (dms).

(Review by Lance).

A cracking session - what else can I say? Great baritone sax playing (endorsed by Joe Temperley in the blurb), compatible trombone alongside him in the frontline and a sympathetic rhythm section. What's not to like?

Wherein lies the problem.

So many good musicians are rolling off the conveyer belts of the music schools, here, in Europe and the States. Each and everyone, sooner, rather than later, has an album on the digital shelves of a cyber record store near you. Some even make it on to the racks of a 'bricks and mortar' music store, but, at the end of the day, there are just too many fish swimming in a small pool.

As I began, Lustig blows fine bari but so did Gerry Mulligan and Cecil Payne. John Surman still does and all of the grandmasters of jazz are even now readily available in a jazz specialist store or online.

So why buy this one? I don't know! If you've heard the band at a gig you're going to put down the dough there and then. But, if you're 6000 miles away, are you going to fork out your hard earned bucks on what you've read here or even in Down Beat?

I have my doubts! However, if you do decide to splash the cash, then you won't be disappointed - I'd swap two of my Mulligan's for this and throw in a Lars Gullin for good measure!

Samples.
Lance.