Doug MacDonald has made a successful career as a warm toned mainstream guitarist. All of his albums are rock solid; his last was a (almost) solo adventure that oozed class and style. This time around, he brings a bunch of LA cats together for a casual jam over standards and it works marvelously.
The album flows over with some great vets. Lanny Morgan/as, Rickey Woodard/ts, Bob Summers/tp and Les Benedict/ tb make up the horns that mix and match, and the rhythm team rotates between Andy Langham-Llew Matthews/p, Luther Hughes-John B. Williams/b and Paul Kreibich-Roy McCurdy/dr.
MacDonald gets the spotlight on some quartet pieces such as a cozy “Day By Day” and a gliding “Samba De Orfeu” and even sits out to let Langham lead the band along with Morgan on a glowing and reflective “Autumn Leaves. The whole session is a cozy and relaxed mood, but Morgan catches fire on “Airegin” and Benedict oozes like a honeydew melon on “”I Love You.” The band swings with joy, and the horns know when to lock and let go as on MacDonald’s bookending pieces “Unimpressed” and “Magic Lamp.” It feels like a night at Charlie O’s or Spazios; the good old days are back for at least an album of how it used to be in LA.
BluJazz Records