Randy Napoleon is best known as the guitarist for the late great Freddie Cole. Since then, he’s embarked on a solo career that is rooted deep in the tradition of classic sounding six stringers like Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green, the three Mount Rushmore gents that are given tribute on this sublimely swinging album.
He works with a pair of rhythm sections, dividing up the material with Xavier Davis-Dick Roe/p, Rodney Whitaker-Paul Keller/b and Quincy Davis-Sean Dobbins/dr. This is the kind of music that made me fall in love with jazz guitar, as Napoleon is clean and clear on “S.O.S”, soulfully rich on “Beaux’s Arts” and upbeat on the bopping “Jean De Fleur”. He’s late night shadowed with Keller on “The Tender Gender”, gorgeous on the nylon strings for “Listen To The Dawn” and gets into a gospel mood on “Sunday Mornin’”. His own material fits in like a piece in a mosaic, giving a rich solo intro to “The Man Who Sells Flowers” and bops with Roe on “The Presence of Fire”. He closes out on a spacious and relaxed solo take of “The Man Who Sells Flowers” making you beg for an album just like this. When’s he bringing his band to LA?