By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Brotherlee Love
Some time has passed
since I’ve reviewed a “small jazz” (quintet)-sized combo that plays a truly
pleasant mix of both new and standard straight-ahead arrangements, all of which
swing nicely. Of course, with the artists involved here, that’s no surprise. Terell
Stafford is one of the most gifted — and hardest-working — trumpet players to
have developed during the past 20 years, and his pianist, Bruce Barth, has the
same reputation.
Stafford was attending
the University of Maryland in 1988 — to obtain a degree in music — when he met
Wynton Marsalis, who recommended that he study with William Fielder (who, at
the time, was at Rutgers University). During this period, Stafford joined Bobby
Watson’s group, Horizon. Stafford subsequently played with McCoy Tyner, Benny
Golson, Kenny Barron, Jon Faddis and the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Band, along
with his own groups.
This album is
dedicated to Lee Morgan, a sensational young trumpeter who, at 18, had joined
Dizzy’s big band. Morgan was another icon who met an untimely death; he was shot
to death by his common-law wife when he was just 33.
Morgan wrote seven
of these nine tracks; Stafford composed “Favor.” “Candy,” the lone standard, is
an Alex Kramer tune.
This is a “happy” album;
you can feel the enjoyment projected by the artists during each track. Very
often, even with famous names, the musicians can sound a bit
bored, but that absolutely isn’t the case here.
This is the kind of
group you want to spend an entire evening listening to.
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