Imagine my surprise when I got this album by George Colligan and heard no piano work. Where is he?!? Well, I dug into the liner notes to discover that Colligan is also a drummer, so on this album he decided to put something together a bit different with bassist Jon Lakey as the only other rhythm mate, and throwing together a horn section of Nicole McCabe/as, Joe Manis-Nicole Glover/ts and Noah Simpson/tp for some freewheeling material.
Not everyone plays on every tune with Manis and McCabe the only horns on the hard driving “Moments To Spare” with McCabe slashing and burning on “Long Term Goals” and Glover digging into a Colligan’s deep pocket of the post bopper “Diabolical Debacle.” The horns get bluesy to the leader’s pulse on the mournful “Derivative” and fluffy with long tones for “Daddy’s Day Out.” Glover taps into a Coltrane mode for the agonizing “Blues For Charleston” and Lakey holds his own for some pizzicato’d work with Colligan’s cymbals for “Moody” and the melancholy “Oregonian Sadness”. A different side of a sideman and leader.