Chris Greene Quartet, Boundary Issues

Tenor-soprano jazzman Chris Greene wants to cross through stylistic barriers. He and his quartet set about to do just that on Boundary Issues (Single Malt 011). What we get is an album of contemporary jazz that shows its hard-bop roots and adopts the rhythms of our current world to the needs of Greene's historical-contemporary explorations. His beautifully open horn tenor sound and ravishing soprano are unleashed and focused to ride across nicely burning grooves, whether it be the reggae pulsations inherent in his arrangement of Silver's classic "Nica's Dream," or the funkified or swinging takes on standards, selected contemporary jazz gems from folks like Kenny Kirkland, or Greene's own originals. The band stands out while Greene lets loose.

His sidemen are the right ones for this date. Damian Espinosa on piano and keys, Marc Piane on acoustic and electric bass, and Steve Corley on drums have what it takes to motor the music along, add their own personalities and solo effectively. Greene stands out in the end as a player of finesse and soul, thoroughly immersed in his version of the contemporary style.

The set is together and in the end a beautiful listen. Greene is something new and worthwhile. Hear him.

Bennett Paster, Relentless Pursuit of the Beautiful

A good hard-bop session still makes it in my book. That's what you get with Bennett Paster's Relentless Pursuit of the Beautiful (self released). The gathering is in the form of a sextet, with guest percussionist Gilad adding a seventh voice for part of the set.

Bennett Paster penned the compositions and plays a quite convincing piano for the program. He's got a Harris through Hancock feel, harmonically hip, line fluent. There's a three-horn front line for those Blue Note type voicings and Paster takes advantage in the writing. Joel Frahm is on tenor, Tim Armacost on tenor and soprano, and Alex Pope Norris plays the trumpet. All can solo in the syle with good facility, velocity, and taste. And they do. The rhythm team of Gregory Ryan and Willard B Dyson Jr, bass and drums, do all you would expect to get the session swinging.

It's well-crafted mainstream jazz, with nicely written tunes and well played solos. You will not be disappointed if you come to it expecting to hear the serious side of what that is. And your toes will tap when they feel it.

The Greg Abate Quintet, Featuring Phil Woods

Many years ago, Phil Woods, then a young man just beginning his long and fruitful career, teamed with fellow altoist Gene Quill for a number of sides. It was a lively affair. The interaction of the two altos was very dynamic and exciting. The sound of the two together was something to hear and remains so.

Altoist Greg Abate has done a present-day equivalent by inviting Phil to join him in a quintet setting. The album, self-titled (The Greg Abate Quintet) (Rhombus 7112), puts the two together with a first-rate straight-ahead grouping of Jessie Green on piano, bassist Evan Gregor, and the drum ace, long-time Woods associate Bill Goodwin.

It's some hard-hitting, bopping contemporaneousness going on here. Abate makes a strong showing both on alto and also soprano, bari and flute, Phil sounds great and they both sound beautiful together. The bandmates make sure that everything swings hard as called for and the blowing originals give the springboards needed for some impolite, exciting jazz.

Abate heads a great outing, sure to appeal to hard bopping fans out there. Try NOT to tap your toes too loudly if you have neighbors below your floor.

Mark Sherman, The L.A. Sessions, Exemplary Bop for Vibes and Organ Trio

When a vibesman of the stature of Mark Sherman teams up with a crack organ trio (Bill Cunliffe, Hammond; John Chiodini, guitar; Charles Ruggiero, drums) for a set of bop/hard bop standards ("Woody N' You," "Whisper Not," "Bag's Groove") and not-so-standards ("Quasimodo," "Celia," "Serpent's Tooth") you expect a certain thihg. And on Mark Sherman's L.A. Sessions (Miles High 8617), you pretty much get it.

That "it" is some nicely swinging ensemble grooving and good-bopping solo work. The drumming kicks it up, guitar and organ solos get inside the genre well, and... Mark Sherman does the entire set WITHOUT sounding like Milt Jackson. The bop lines are there with all lucidity, but he has a sound that's softer than Bags, a little more crisply articulated.

Like the moldy fig New Orleans disks made in the '40s and '50s, bopping is the new traditionalist cottage industry. And like that era's revivals, the current turn backwards doesn't always uncover new avenues or open up additional vistas.

Mark Sherman brings a slightly different articulation to it though. And everybody so thoroughly grounds themselves in the idiom that you can't help but appreciate what's going on. These guys FEEL the music. It's inside their bones. And so it comes off as authentic, genuine.

That's something.

Trombonist John Fedchock and his Sextet Live

Hard bop of the Blue Note variety lives on today with a plethora of ensembles making what they will of the style. Some are better at it than others. John Fedchock's NY Sextet is one of the best. Their Live at the Red Sea Jazz Festival (CAPRI 74102-2) bears this out.

On it you have trombonist Fedchock in a lucid mode, post-Trane tenorist Walt Weiskopf doing what he does best, trumpetmeister Scott Wendholt getting in his licks, and an eloquent Allen Farnham on piano heading up the rhythm team that also includes David Finck on bass (walking and soloing well) and Dave Ratajczak holding forth from the drum throne.

Here's a band that takes advantage of the three-horn front line with nicely turned voicings a la the style, and has the kind of good soloing abilities from all concerned so that extended renditions do not bog down with lackluster moments.

It is not music designed to change the shape of the future jazz firmament. It's just very tasteful straightahead blowing of a high order. A very good listen indeed!