Usually, when you think of the mandolin, sounds like bluegrass or folk tunes from the UK come to mind. Well, Michael Lampert plugs in his own mandolin, and sounds a heck of a lot like Wes Montgomery as he teams up with Tom Bethke on electric or acoustic guitars and a rhythm team of bassist Aaron Kohen and drummer Thomas White for a collection of swinging originals.
His soloing is nimble and clean on easy and breezy tunes such as “Whirligig” and he glides with soul over the hip little pulse on “The Sweeper”, creating relaxed spaciousness on “Blues Encino” and the soft title track. With Bethke on acoustic guitar, rich samba rhythms dot and dash to “Ninth Phase”. The strings get cozy on the nimble finger working of “Spree”-I like this guy! Check him out.