This CD project contains some compelling writing from an equally compellingupright bass player. I know from whence I write that Thomsonis certainly one of the heavies in the area of upright bass support. He was mysideman at the famed Iridium jazz club/NY City, along with drummer extraordinaireSteve Davis, and the haunting jazz harmonica talents of Boston based Ralph Rosen.

There's Buddy DeFranco, Dick DiBona (from Boston), Dick Johnson, (also Boston/RIP) & Ken Peplowski. What they all have in common is a compelling, strong, and unique clarinet delivery & sound! I've always marvelled at the fat, rotund, & cogent blast of musical artistry that emerges from peplowski's clari. His singular sound is total appassionata! There's a certain flowing, rhythmic, counterpoint to everything that he does and plays, (it seems) that warms as well as attracts listeners into a mode of a powerfully dramatic musical experience, from the swinging to the profound, the dramatic, the serene. Ken's music is exhilarating and uncompromising & certainly not impersonal. His music can deliver you into a more gentler mood. Try him... You'll like him!

I'm not much of a devotee of the Avante Garde' jazz idiom, but I must concede to the fine musical substance contained in jazz pianist Pablo Held's new orig. music CD project, ''Music.'' The spacious almost symphonic character of this jazz trio is remarkable in its harmonic and melodic variety. And, please also note the full, rich texture of art contained therein, certainly a viable musical 'conversational' manner going on with the players etc.