After a nail-biting 120 minutes watching England snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at the Euros I needed something to steady my nerves. If I hadn't been 'on the wagon' a double JD would have helped. So, in the absence of Tennessee's finest, I opted for a piano trio album to help me to return down to earth.
However, not just any piano trio album would do but the one led by drummer Alvin Queen, a former member of the Oscar Peterson Trio.
I reviewed and waxed eloquently over Queen's previous trio album, Night Train to Copenhagen, in 2021. The piano and bass may be different on this latest release but the music is of the same high standard. Holmes is beautifully expressive on the ballads, occasionally a little funky but always on the money. His synth work on Love Will Find a Way adds a new dimension and his piano solo performance of Someone to Watch Over me is arguably a version that can stand alongside any of the great piano versions of this tune. Queen ensures that everything swings as defined by the mood whilst Boller is equally outstanding.
As an interesting footnote to Boller, who is featured extensively on Falling in Love With Love, the bass he is playing is the bass used by Eugene J. Wright on Brubeck's Take Five. Needless to say it is a gift he is very proud to have received and he does it justice.
The selection of tunes is quite exquisite. One tune in particular that completely captivated me was Jack Wilson's Waltz For Ahmad.
On the subject of tunes there is an almighty clanger in the otherwise excellent booklet. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is not the song by Benjamin Weisman, Dorothy Wayne and Marilyn Garrett that Bobby Vee had a hit with in 1962 but a song of the same name by Vic Mizzy and Irving Taylor. To muddy the waters even further, nor was it used in the film, also of the same name, based on a book by Cornell Woolrich - Victor Young supplied the music for that one.
How do I know all this? Like the night, BSH has a thousand eyes.
Still, what's in a name? In the hands of the Alvin Queen Trio it's a great tune on a highly recommended album although I must point out that the vinylites only get nine tracks* compared to thirteen for the CD community. Lance
Available July 21.
*I don't know which tracks are missing on the LP.
Out of This World; It Ain't Necessarily So; Waltz For Ahmad; Bleeker Street Theme**; Love Will Find a Way; The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; Spartacus Love Theme; Feeling Good; Firm Roots; Send in the Clowns; Falling in Love With Love**; Someone to Watch Over me**; Three Little Words**.
**Not on LP.
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