Christopher Hollyday (alto); Gilbert Castellanos (trumpet); Joshua White (piano); Rob Thorsen (bass); Tyler Kreutel (drums).
(Review by Lance).
If this had been released a couple of days earlier it would have walked the 'October Choices' as it is it looks sure to be in the frame for the November Handicap - have a chat with Mr. Ladbroke.
You've guessed it - this is out and out bebop! and I'll happily file it alongside my Parker's and Dizzy's and, dare I say it? probably return to it more than the old Dial's and Savoys - that's how good it is.
Hollyday, a precocious talent, was holding his own in Boston alongside cats such as Wynton Marsalis and Marcus Roberts before he was 21! In 1996 he relocated to San Diego where, for 20 years or so, he has worked as an educator (that's a teacher in old money) leading a big band and passing on his wisdom.
If only 50% of that wisdom rubs off then San Diego is the next jazz capital of the world!
Stupendous (very app.) alto playing, he soars birdlike through the changes incorporating them without cloning, adapting them to his own masterly technique. Suddenly, bebop is now!
Castellanos is the perfect sidekick. If Bird had had this guy instead of the embryo Miles - wow! if only. A rhythm section that benefits from today's recording facilities make this the album to die for.
It's near perfect.
What! Only near perfect?
Hollyday quotes Stranger in Paradise thrice too often and I'm not over-enamoured of the head arrangement of Everything Happens to Me although the solos more than compensate for it. Apart from that - if you like modern bebop then look no further.
Lance.
One of Another Kind (Freddie Hubbard); Hallucinations (Bud Powell); Everything Happens to Me; Autumn in New York (beautiful solo feature for Hollyday); I've Got the World on a String; Segment (Charlie Parker).
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