Vintage hard bop reminiscent of classic Blue Note era Jazz Messengers is on display with brothers Zaccai/p and Luques/b Curti team up with vets Ralph Peterson/dr, Donald Harrison/as and Brian Lynch/tp for a hip night at Connecticut’s The Side Door Jazz Club.
It sure doesn’t hurt that Harrison and Lynch are alumni of the hard bop schools of Art Blakey and Horace Silver respectively, and they show their allegiance throughout the night, flexing their muscles with the rhythm team on “Three Points and a Sphere” and flowing with the “Poinciana”-esque cadence of “Phi” with Peterson lithe on the ride cymbal. Lynch rides the percussion avalanche like a long boarder on the Afro Cuban “Parametric” and Harrison is fierce on the fiery “Manifest Density.” As for the brothers, Luques is expressive as he supports Lynch during “The Professor” as Zaccai does a hip trio work with brother Luques and Peterson on the nimble “Torus.” These gents got bop in their bones, and the marrow is rich throughout.