I sighed, I cried, I almost died at the thought of yet another hard-bop trumpet, tenor, piano, bass and drums combo shooting for the moon. Let's face it, Blakey, Silver and a whole lot of the Blue Note boys had worked this side of the street since time knows when and, as a counter-attraction, there were a couple of foreign teams kicking a ball around at Wembley and, hadn't I heard Walrath in a JNE concert at the Corner House back in 1986?
Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I played the first track before heading downstairs to Wembley. I didn't make it! Even if it had been Newcastle v Sunderland at Wembley (dream on!) no way was I going to curtail my listening of this album.
I can't remember much about that 1986 gig but, suffice to say, if it was even half as good as Live at Smalls then I'd have been boring everyone to death about it ever since.
Recorded in April 2023, this isn't a recording session pick-up group but a band that has been working as a unit since 2010. It's tight, sure it is, how could it not be? However, once it opens up it becomes a free for all with both horns going for broke with piano, bass and drums, not there just for the ride but to spur them on to even greater heights.
I've never been a big fan of finishing numbers with a seemingly endless round of fours - until now that is. On the opening Roadkill trumpet and tenor lock horns so fiercely that Smalls must have put the NYC fire department on a red alert.
Six originals by Walrath, now in his seventies, set the scene. They're gritty, challenging compositions that stretch all five musicians to the limit and all five rise to the occasion maybe surpassing those limits. When empathy like this is present distant horizons no longer seem distant.
A must have!
Now to watch the football but don't tell me who scored! Lance
Roadkill; A Bite in Tunisia; Left Turn on 86th Street; Grandpa Moses; Mood For Muhal; Sacrifice.
No comments :
Post a Comment