This gem has been in my in-tray since November 2023 and, for some inexplicable reason, never quite made it to the top of the pile. Possibly because some young upstarts sneaked in and jumped the queue.
Well it's finally made it and not a month too soon. Bebop for today, tomorrow and forever more. Eleven of Vancouver's finest blowing on charts by Townsend and Bill Coon.
Book-ended by a couple of classic Horace Silver compositions - Home Cookin' and Metamorphosis - with a few of Weeds' originals and that great standard Lullaby of the Leaves in between - this is pretty close to perfection. Dynamics in all the right places and solos that incorporate that often forgotten jazz essential - swing! It still don't mean a thing if it ain't got it.
By which I don't mean that it has to sound like a swing band from the 1930s. Swing is something you can't describe. You just know when it is, or isn't there. New Orleans, bebop, rock, contemporary, they all have their own concept of what swingin' means to them.
If I'd played this back in November it would have been a front runner, as it is, I'll break the rules and slot it in as one of this year's contenders. LISTEN. Lance
Home Cookin'; Corner Kisses; Blossoms in May; Power Station; Thedia; Lullaby of the Leaves; Metamorphosis
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