Here are a pair of trumpet men that are carrying the torch of two different, but swinging, musical traditions.
The future of Blue Note-styled hard bop is in good hands with trumpeter Eric Jacobson along with his snappy quintet of Geof Bradfeld/ts, Bruce Barth/p, Dennis Carroll/b and George Fludas/dr. Jacobson has a sound and feel not dissimilar to Lee Morgan, and the team grooves like a vintage Horace Silver’d outfit on the soulful “New Combinations” featuring Barth’s classy ivories, or the smooth “Discover” that has the s parks fly between Carroll and Fludas”. Bradfield is icy warm on One Way” with the horns locking up for palpable harmonies for the hip shuffle of “Sir John”. Jacobson shines like a full moon with Barth on the lovely read of “Old Folks” and glistens on “Con Alma”. Timeless treasures.
The other jazz tradition has been around as long as the music itself, as Jelly Roll Morton introduced “The Latin Tinge” to his earliest recordings. Here, street level Latin pulses are delivered by trumpeter and leader Tito Carrillo and his percolating band of Troy Roberts/sax, Ben Lewis/p, Clark Sommers/b, Jay Sawyer/dr and Victor Gonzalez/cong. There’s fire in Carrillo’s belly as he sears with Lewis on “Fly By Night” and smoothly glides over the sizzling undercurrent of “Fire & Ice”. There’s a richly rumbling cadence on “Momentum” , with Roberts’ tenor in exuberant form on “Crazy, Stupid Fire”, taking the baton from Sommers’ textured intro. The horns bring heat to the streets on “Urbanessence” and soulfully strut to “Bliss Point”. It’s cruise night on the boulevard!