Drummer Eliot Zigmund shows why jazz is best heard in clubs, as he leads his smoking quartet of Allen Farnham/p, Matt Garrison/ts-ss and David Kingsnorth/b through a swinging set from a October 2017 gig at Greenwich Village’s Smalls.
The quartet mixes jazz standards and originals, the latter including a driving modal “Remeditation” that has Garrison reaching for his inner Coltrane over the leader’s charging drums” while the team flexes their collective muscles on Garrison’s hip bopper “You’ll Know When You See Her” as Zigmund rides the whip like a scene from Red River. A warm tenor aria opens up the fluffy “Time Remembered” and the team is gloriously relaxed as they float on the warm “For Heaven’s Sake.” Zigmund rides the high hat like Fred Astaire during Ralph Towner’s sleek “The Glide” while his sticks are as crisp as Pringles on the snappy “9 Doyers Street.”
Everything here mixes melody and extrapolation to perfect measurements, with the solos never overstaying their welcomes, the harmonies rich, and the pulse like that of a marathon runner. Whatever the cover charge was this evening, it was a bargain.