Here is the most unassuming of sessions, and yet it works amazingly well. Trumpeter Bob Arthurs is a teacher at the Music Conservatory of Westchester, having played with guys like Coryell, Farlow, Marsh and Konitz. Mattina is a fellow faculty member as well, having been under the tutelage of Barry Galbraith. The tunes selected are some blues, basic standards and bop tunes, and the mood is a cozy as a pair of fuzzy slippers. Arthurs sings like an old soul on “All Of Me” and “I Thought About You,” but besides that, it’s just a matter of him playing the melody to perfection, delivering a chorus or two of a relaxed but impressive solo, and letting Lamattina fill the room with his elegant string work.
Arthurs’ horn is clean, clear, calm, concise and consistently swinging, as on a hip “Night in Tunisia,’ while Lamattina delivers some impressive fretwork on “Birk’s Works” and “Lonnie’s Blues.” It’s not a matter of chops here, but telling a story, and these guys tell them like Hans Christian Anderson. This will make you fall in love with music again.