Alan Barnes
(alto/baritone sax); Bruce Adams (trumpet); Dean Masser (tenor sax);
Andrzej Baranek (piano); Ed Harrison (bass); Gareth Hughes (drums).
(Review by Lance).
As I posted earlier,
last night's JNE promotion at Gosforth Civic Theatre was a tremendous gig and this recording, from two years previous sounds
even better - possibly because I didn't have the distraction of trying to
actually see the guys playing from my seat way back in the seventh row!
Hughes comes across in Blakey mode much more than he did at the concert whilst the horns come at it with such power that Lee Morgan and co would have known they'd been in a battle had such a mythical encounter taken place.
Alan Barnes is no stranger to the area - alto, tenor, clarinet or bari they are his version of a Colt 45 or a Kalashnikov AK-47. Here his alto is the Colt and the Kalash his baritone and he unleashes round after round - Art would have loved him!
Bruce hits the high notes effortlessly but waxes more lyrical on his ballad solo - Easy Living. Clifford Brown lives!
Dean Masser blows tenor as befits the hard bop idiom with that gutsy sound that slots somewhere in between Lester and Trane - Dexterish.
Baranek is a new name to me but at both the concert and on the disc he ticks all the boxes - maybe adds a few new ones.
Harrison gets such a lovely tone that you almost overlook what he's playing - almost!
This is the sound I wanted to hear at Gosforth...However, it was still a great gig and this is an even greater CD!
Lance.
A Bitter Dose; Ping Pong; Together Again/Lover Man/Easy Living; Crisis; A Wheel Within a Wheel; One by One; Arabia.
CD is available at gigs or from www.gazhughesmusic.com.
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