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Bebop Spoken There

Dave Puddy: "Eventually we paid our entrance money [to Eel Pie Island] and fought our way to one of the many bars where we could buy our Newcastle Brown and retire to the back of the heaving dancefloor. There must have been lights somewhere, but my memory remains of being in some dark cavernous wonderland." - (Just Jazz July 2020)

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11,618 (and counting) posts since we started blogging just over 12 years ago. 753 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (July 5).

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As we all know there are no live gigs taking place in the immediate future. However, any links to jazz streaming that are deemed suitable - i.e. with a professional approach - will be considered for posting.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Album Review: Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens - In Common 2

Walter Smith III (tenor sax); Matthew Stevens (guitar); Micah Thomas (piano); Linda May Han Oh (bass); Nate Smith (drums).

The blurb describes it as "... being at once free and highly structured, melodically accessible yet thoroughly contemporary." Come to think of it, I couldn't have phrased it better myself!

Apart from the opening number - Roy Allan - composed by the late Roy Hargrove and played as a homage to him by the two leaders, the remaining tracks were all by either Walter Smith or Matthew Stevens.

Like the earlier recording, In Common, the aim is simplicity which, as any musician will tell you, is much more difficult to do effectively than is complexity where the lack of substance can sometimes be disguised by a flurry of notes, multi-tempo passages and fashionably dissonant sounds.

 Smith III plays beautiful tenor, just as I remembered him doing at a memorable concert at Sage Gateshead back in 2013. Stevens was also on that gig and he was as magnificent then as he is now - the gig was in the running for gig of the year - maybe it won, I can't remember now but, if it didn't, it should have done!

 I'm not going to claim this to be my CD of the Year but it will be closer to the top than to the bottom - a lot closer!

 Check it out - it's available on Whirlwind Recordings WR4755.
Lance.
PS: Not my album cover of the year!

 Roy Allen; Lotto; Cowboy; Clem; Van Der Linde; Provinces; General George Washington; Little Lamplight; Opera; Type Rider.
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