2018 marks the 60th anniversary of Dave Brubeck’s famed State Department tour when he was the official Jazz Ambassador for America. That famed tour with Carmen McRae and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross was joyfully recorded for posterity; this album revisits music from that goodwill offering along with new material. Maybe diplomacy can work again!
The team of Chris Brubeck/b-btb, Dan Brubeck/dr-perc, Mike DeMicco/g and Chuck Lamb/p deliver a festive and Middle Eastern “Blue Rondo a la Turk” while DeMicco’s guitar is slinky and sublime on “Far More Blues.” Some suave brush work and bass trombone by the brothers provide winning ways on “Easy As You Go” and the team is kinetic and energetic on “The Golden Horn.” Chris Brubeck’s own “3 Wise Men” has an exotic allure, while the closing “Thank You (Dziekuje)” showed that good ol’ dad was a groover at heart. This is a fun one-anyone want to send this to Kim Jong Un?