1989 was a good year for jazz in Canada, judging by this snappy little album from Cellar Live. ‘Twas just a few nights before Christmas (in 1989) and all through the Jazz Partners Studio in Toronto, the team of Bernie Senensky/p, Bob Mover/as, Sam Noto/p, Neil Swainson/b and Barry Elmes/dr was stirring up some vintage hard bop sounds, creating moods like a return of the golden days of Blue Note Records.
A few of the tunes, like “Don’t Look Back” and “Jump For Joe” bop like they came right from Horace Silver’s pen, with the formal a rich and dark swinger and the latter a lyrical charmer. For the quintet pieces, Noto’s horn is muted and mellow on “Floating” and he sounds like he took his Lee Morgan pills on ”The Latest” and “One Is Nought”. Mover is sweet on the waltzing “May In June” and gentle for “Danse Encore” with Senensky keeping things moving at a classy pace on a glorious “I Hear A Rhapsody”. This is the kind of music that makes you fall in love with jazz over and over. Accept no substitutes.