Friends of Hot Club jazz are going to have a field day on this quartet consisting of Ferenc Illenyi/v, Erich Avinger/g, Andrew Lienhard/p and Chris Maresh/b as they bring guests into and out of their gypsy caravan for a collection of swinging tunes. Illenyi has a tone as thick as Mississippi Mud and a vibrato as wide as the Grand Canyon as he sways on tangos such as “Ando Beco” and agonizes over the campfire with an eerie telling of “ Gloomy Sunday.” The rhythm team struts on “Tears” and sashays on “Gypsy Caprice” while Paganini joins the HCQ on “Boadbit, Bulerias” and sways melancholic on “Tortura.” You gotta love when an artist knows when to milk a note, and they are wrung for all their worth on the cheerful “birds of Santa Maria Novella” and the romantic “Sonata in F Minor K466”. Don’t expect to sit still on this one!
Mesa/Blue Records