Rich Willey: Puttin’ On The Ritz

A team of four horns and three rhythms are in the clever hands of trumpeter Rich Willey, as he takes on a w ide range of material to interpret. The rhythm section of (mostly) Andrew Synowiec/g, Matt Bissonette/b, Wally Minko-Paul Mutzabaugh/p and Greg Bissonette/dr is teamed by a ro tating horn section that includes Andy Martin/tb, Bob Sheppard/sax,  Brian Scanlontts among others in cut and paste form. The result is a swaying take of muted horns on “I’ll Be Seeing You”, a bopper of “Putting ON The Ritz”, a swaggering “Sweet Lorraine” and a strutting hoot of “Hard Hearted Hannah”, with Willey soloing adroitly on open trumpet, muted horn and even bass trumpet. There’s a smoking R&B ish take of Frank Zappa’s “Uncle Remus”, balanced by the charming “Holy Trinity”, making the focus of the album sound more and atmosphere, which is an alluring one. Charts more fun than those by Lewis and Clark.

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