****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Anthony E. Nelson Jr: Swinging Sunset

Tenor sax man Anthony E. Nelson Jr puts out an album that takes you back to the beefy horn/B3 meetings between Stanley Turrentine or Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis with Shirley Scott. Nelson smokes like a Cohibo throughout, with Koehler humming on the Hammond and Cecil Brooks III cutting out the grooves. The  moods and tempos are mostly grinding, slow and easy blues, oozing on “Canadian Sunset” and soulfully strutting through “Girl Talk”. Brooks gets featured a bit on “Mildew”, and his brush work hops on the hip “On A Misty Night”. Koehler creates a rolling in fog for “Thee Foolish Things” and preaches it with the leader on ”Walk With Me”. It takes a certain artist these days to trust the tones and tempos like this without resorting to double times, screeches or side roads. It sounds so easy, but if it were, how come no one does it anymore?

www.anthonynelsonjazz.com

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