Playing alto and soprano saxophone, Gabriel Evan brings together a team of Joe Goldberg/cl-ts, John Zarsky/tp, Joe Kennedy/p, Ben Fox/b and Michael Voelker/dr-perc for a collection of songs that sound like pre-swing two steppers. Hints of early Fletcher Henderson or small group Bix Beiderbecke are either saluted or felt on these vintage pieces ranging from the 17th to early 20th Century, cleverly arranged by either Evan or old jazzers themselves.
A handful of pieces charted by Swing Era trumpeter Charlie Shavers result in some exotic drumming and Goldberg’s wailing clarinet on Rimsky-Korsoakov’s 1888 “Arabian Nightmare” 1616’s “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes” has a sweet and nostalgic licorice stick. Evan’s soprano sax sears on Duke Ellington’s “Jubilee Stomp” and his alto sax is Frankie Trumbauer warm along with John Zarsky’s lovely trumpet on Beiderbeck’s classic “Singing the Blues.” From the leader’s pen, “South 5th Street” has earthy polyphonic interplay, and “Negotiations of South Williamsburg” trudges like the band is on the way to St. James Infirmary. Non-Bebop Spoken here.