Vancouver-based label Cellar Music Group specializes in hard bop and post bop a la labels the past like Prestige and Blue Note. Here are a couple albums that pass the Time Machine test.
Tenor saxist Grant Stewart leads a team of David Wong/b, Tardo Hamme/p, Phil Stewart/dr and guest Bruce Harris/tp through a collection of bopping originals and covers. Stewart has a vintage Blue Note macho feel to his horn, and it works well as he swaggers on the bluesy waltz of “Little Spain” and delivers glorious arias on “Ghost Of A Chance” and “I’m A Fool To Want You”. The horns lock well on a cleverly Latinized take of Benny Golson’s “Out Of The Past” and glide around “Bearcat” and race like Formula One drivers on “A Piece Of Art”. Timeless, vintage and swinging.
Bassist John Lee forms a snappy trio with Carl Allen/dr and Miles Black/p, with tenor titan Corey Weeds sitting in a few tunes on this finger popping session. Weeds blows smoke rings after taking the baton from Lee on the warm “Soul Leo” and is bel canto with his vibrato for the ballad “Fabiene” while flexing his muscles over the jaunty rhythm section and Lee’s tasty bass lines on “Blues on Sunday”. For the trio format, Black taps into his inner Vince Guaraldi on the stylish “The Artist” and his Red Garland crystalline on the gentle “Life Is A Beautiful Thing”. The trio shies with Allen’s suave brush work and Lee’s soloing on an uptown take of “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” with Black in a boogie woogie mood on the fun “Carl’s Blues”. A treasure chest of swing.