Here’s a guy who shows what a wide variety of styles and sounds can come from one guy with a horn. Allen Vizzutti plays trumpet, flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet on this self produced collection of originals. As he says in the liner notes, the music has a holistic feel to it, very live and warm. He mixes and matches not only different styles, but bands as well, as string sections come and go with the regular working band of Ronald Bruner Jr/dr, Mike Miller/g, Reggie Hamilton/b, Darrell Grant-Laura Vizzuti/p and guests Chick Corea/p and Stanley Clarke/b.
He’s got just about everything you’d ever want a horn to do here, and he sounds comfortable in each setting. He can go funky with bass and drums on “Ritzville” and get real rubbernecking on ‘Papa Bear,” but can show his hot bop chops with Stanley Clarke on the cooking “Ticklish.” Some sophisticated modern music is on display on “One of a Kind,” while a bit of passionate strings make “Glide” a sensuous and dramatic delight. “Amara” has him teaming up with Chick Corea with some very sleek and saucy material, while the disc closes with some pop vocals on “I Don’t Know.” Would love to see what he emphasizes in concert, as he shows strengths on multiple fronts here.