By Ric Bang
Buy CD: With the Wind and the Rain
My memory of Joshua Breakstone
goes back a long way, when I was being overwhelmed by artists such as Charlie
Parker and Dizzy Gillespie; I frantically searched for other instrumentalists
who could do what Charlie and Diz were doing with their horns. It wasn’t
long before I stumbled upon Breakstone’s guitar, and I was hooked; he has been
a favorite ever since.
Breakstone is a prolific
artist with an extensive discography; this is one of his newest albums. He has
favored “small jazz” units, usually recording with a bassist and drummer, but
for this disc he added a cello (Mike Richmond) a few tracks. Richmond also
is a name bassist, and he employs that style — plucking, rather than bowing — on
these four quartet selections. The other supportive artists are Lisle
Atkinson on bass, and Eliot Zigmund on drums: both regulars on many of Breakstone’s
releases.
Most of these tunes come
from jazz icons who’ve had a major influence on Breakstone’s career: Kenny
Dorham, Oscar Pettiford, George Cables, Keter Betts and Paul Chambers. The
program is rounded out by three of Breakstone’s favorite standards: “Be Anything,” by Irving
Gordon; “The Very Thought of You,” by
Ray Noble; and “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair,” by Jack Lawrence and Clara Edwards.
These four
musicians have been around for years, and have played with many famed soloists
and groups, sometimes in genres that extend beyond jazz. All are
internationally known; Breakstone has toured Japan more than 50 times.
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