Throughout his illustrious career, trumpeter and flugelhornist Brian Lynch has carried the classic hard bop torch that was passed on to him from his early employer Horace Silver. This recent album has him in vintage bop quartet form, with Jim Snidero/as, Orrin Evans/p, Boris Kozlov/b and Donald Edwards/dr putting together a two disc album that includes a pair of takes of each Blue Note-sounding tune. Which do you choose? Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth? Is this heaven or what?
The material includes a sleek minor blues in “Afinique” that has the horns surfing over the pulse like long boarders. The front line delivers a dramatic cadence on “Keep Your Circle Small” with Edwards snapping everyone to attention on “On the Dot”. Lynch gives a smoking tribute to his trumpet idol on “Woody Shaw” and gets a bit on the darker side on “Charles Tolliver” while Snidero boogaloos with Evans on “Clairevoyance”. Timeless tunes. Where’s the Francis Wolff cover?!?