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Sparkle and explosive indeed! Of course, it doesn't hurt that Jeff Hamilton is one of my favorite pivotal drummers for the jazz idiom.  The group has been together for awhile and man, it shows!! Their symbiosis and control is something to be reckoned with. You have to appreciate this project as a true work of artistry between three musicians possessing uncanny instinctive musicality. Add to that their precise rhythmic articulation and voila... JAZZ ART in musical clothing. In music as in nature, there are hills and vales. These three masters are artists of genius who raise their art to such heights that we are able to breathe in their craft to a musical altitude and groove on it.. and then descend again to a more temperate harmonic-melodic level... .Until the eruption of some combined group genius idea heaves us up to a new mountain peak as it were. Drama, expression, style, influence, and jubilation is my summation for this formidable jazz trio. Live on gentlemen.

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Rhythmic articulation, style, hard driving harmonic statement, group symbiosis... It's all there! And, it edifies us, the listener... You're literally drawn in, and you're glad to be part of this musical journey!! I relegate my readers to Gary Smulyan's Hammond B-3 jazz quartet. Nothing reinvents the blues idiom more than a burnin' B-3 capably driven by the likes of this group's sideman, Mike LeDonne... Nothing for Mike to apologize here for! His Blues for DP is smokin' and no jockin' and ain't this what were talkin' about? This group anticipates well the meaning and the aesthetic of what they proffer, and they expound their art to our sensibilities profoundly, eloquently, and most important... convincingly!! By default therefore, their combined musical overture prepares us, the listener to assimilate their craft intelligently, thus widening our artistic circle of understanding. It's easy to almost become overwhelmed by the level and  utter virtuosity of the hidden talent(s) that are part of our artistic ethos. That said, I for one always appreciate this type of skilled musical drama.

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I find it fascinating that both Paul Broadnax and myself have CD projects that feature tributes to Joe Williams... His, a total CD tribute... and mine a tribute to one of Joe's signature tunes...''Here's To My Lay'' (which is the title of my project). Paul features the song so beautifully with his effort. Paul has been a vocal jazz icon and jazz piano mainstay in the Boston, (N.E.) area as long as I can remember, (and I've been doing what I do in both small groups and big band settings now for some 50+ yrs.) That said, his formidable and indestructible voice forges on. Broadnax is a true savant and vocal poet in the true tradition of our beloved American Songbook. It's all there... controlled vibrato for emphasis on the feeling for lyrics, timbre, a fully resonant voice, in a word a lovely vocal instrument which he uses to sooth the sensibilities of his listeners. He delivers his songs, (particularly his ballads) with a symphonic and totally artistic imaginative dynamic. 

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Singers and musicians who are not famous often muse about meeting and performing with legends of music, jazz, etc etc… It may have been in a subjective context that I had a dialogue with my best buddy, Mike Mersch about a concert I was to put on in Feb 2011 with my big band. This concert was to be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church Venice, Fl. (A church with great affinity and compatibility to the jazz idiom.) Ultimately, although I didn’t realize it yet, this church was to put it’s venue where it’s mouth is as it were and give me the venue gratis to effect an idea that began to brew in both my mind and Mike’s.

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I will make the understatement of the day and assert that it was a hoot to both produce and warm up vocally for jazz singer legend Mark Murphy with my big band. I guess both Mark and myself were both a little apprehensive in meeting each other for the first time, but after the fact, my recollections of the two vocal jazz concerts which I produced with my co-producer, Mike Mersch were studies in humor, great jazz phrasing, indestructible vocalese by Mark, and ultimately down a little road later…