Composer and arranger Wayne Alpern lets his pen do the talking on these bold and brass fed charts. The rhythm team of Billy Test/p, Evan Grebor/b and Josh Bailey/dr is fronted by the two trumpets of Sam Hoyt and David Smith as well as six, count ‘em, six trombones in the hands of Noah Bless, Mike Boschen, Michael Davis, Nick Grinder, Jason Jackson, Matt McDonald and James Rogers. There’s more sliding here than an instructional video by Rickey Henderson or Lou Brock!
The mix works surprisingly well, most of all when the drums sit out and the brass give a type of doo-wopping street corner symphony on the finger snapping “Blue Moon,” a funky “I’m Old Fashioned” and a peek a blue plunger on the Wizard Of Oz piece “If I Only Had A Brain.”
There are more ‘bones than a chiropractic convention on the disco grooved “Domino” and the gents show how to bebop on Charlie Parker’s “Anthropology.” You get a vaudevillian mood on the herky jerking “Blue Bones” and rich sonorities blend well on “Take Five” and the delicate “Handle With Care.” This brass album shines with gold!