Scott Hamilton came on the scene as a "very old school" tenor adept at a time when very few were still with us who were carrying on in that mode. Harry Allen is a newer (to me anyway) and slightly younger exponent of that same school, so it makes sense that they join together for this two-tenor gathering, 'Round Midnight (Challenge 73348).
Rossano Sportiello has impressed me in the past as another game adept in the tradition, in this case on the piano, and so it seems quite fitting that he occupies the piano chair for this set. He and the horns do very nice work throughout. The rhythm team of Joel Forbes and Chuck Riggs, bass and drums, know how to motor the music and keep the whole thing swinging.
So you get Zoot and Al, Bean and Ben, a little of the Texas tenors and the swing/bop convergence done with conviction. There is no holding back, no attempt at total recreation but instead the raw excitement of jazz as surprise, not as surprising perhaps as these styles were when first born, but spontaneous and honest.
There are standards and some swinging originals. It is a nice change to hear people play like this and actually mean it. But with this gang that's not so much a surprise as a confirmation.
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