CD Review:Andy Brown Quartet - Direct Call (with a backward glance at Hank Garland)

Andy Brown (guitar); Jeremy Kahn (piano); Joe Policastro (bass); Phil Gratteau (drums).

(Review by Lance).

Patti was Goin' to Chicago - "Sorry but I can't take you". However, after, like Little Jimmy Rushing she done been here and gone, she done returned with this rather splendid CD bringing to my attention a very fine quartet.

I knew I was going to like it before I even played it. Any band that includes Hoagy's One Morning in May (the month!) in their setlist is going to get my vote. The fact that it wasn't quite what I expected didn't harm it at all - if the tune's good enough it can handle all-comers.

One Morning in May's good enough - even played uptempo in 3/4 it still hit the spot.

Brown is one of those guitarists you could listen to forever without being bored or needing earplugs. Howard Alden, Joe Pass, Barney, Herb shared this quality with him. Alden still does and they have recorded together. Closer to home, James Birkett and Roly Veitch work the same side of the street.

Andy Brown may be the man out front but he's got three of Chi's best behind him.

Jeremy Kahn is my kind of pianist, lots of locked hands, block chord solos - Shearing, Garner, Peterson, Brubeck, Milt Buckner the influences. 

Policastro is the bassman's bassist. Not just for his timekeeping and sizzling solos but also the almost cello-like sound he produces on his arco solo on A Prisoner of Love.

Gratteau, likewise, epitomises taste in what I sometimes think is fast becoming a vanishing commodity

Well, maybe not as long as these guys are around. One of the tracks that really knocked me out (I know they all did) was Relaxing I'd heard the tune before but where? It's so catchy you need but hear it once and you know where it's going - and you wouldn't want it to go anywhere else. The album notes provided the answer: "From the late guitarist Hank Garland's landmark early sixties recording  Jazz Winds From a New Direction." 'Hey, I've got that!' I shouted excitedly to Daphne the cat. She was cool about it but I dug out the old Phillips vinyl (BBL 7475) and played it. With 17-year-old Gary Burton, Joe Benjamin and Joe Morello alongside Garland I saw from whence Andy Brown was coming from. This was great - a new love and a rediscovered old love. Perhaps I'll play them on alternate evenings - sorry Andy, I'm working late/sorry Hank it's my bowling club night.

I don't know if the Garland album is still available but you can get the Andy Brown Quartet disc on Delmark DE5023. (samples/buy)

The Jeep is Jumpin'; Prisoner of Love; El Cajon; Funk in Deep Freeze; Appel Direct; Relaxing; One Morning in May; Catch Me; Ela É Carioca; Freak of the Week.

Lance.