Currently Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University, trumpeter Terell Stafford still gets a chance to show his students and fans the practical side of the trumpet, with this latest album a perfect addition to his curriculum. He’s amassed an impressive catalogue over the years, with tributes to Lee Morgan and Billy Strayhorn. This time around he focuses on balancing the various worlds of a teacher, musician, father and Christian with songs reflecting each of these aspects.
He’s teamed up with regulars of the Le Coq label (which is turning into what Blue Note Records used to be, with a “family” of artists), including Tim Warfield/ss-ts, Bruce Barth/p, David Wong/b, Johnathan Blake/dr and Alex Acuna/perc. Most of the songs have a bold and optimistic presence, with Stafford and Blake jumping out at the starting gates on the title track with Warfield’s bodacious tenor not far behind, with the old Methodist hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” getting a Pentecostal kick from Acuna’s propelling percussion.
Stafford and Warfield are brawny and bopping through the take of Horace Silver’s “Room 608” and they swagger around Wong’s intro to the greasy “Wruth’s Blues” with Warfield blowing smoke rings. A switch to the soprano sax has Warfield sizzling with the leader over Acuna and Barth on the optimistic romp of “Mi a Mia” while the glowing “Manaus at Dusk” has the horns glowing cruise to the rumbling joy.
On the more mellow side, Stafford mutes up his horn to team up with an elegant Barth and bowing Wong on the romantic “Two Hearts as One” with the pianist dressed in a classy tuxedo as Stafford goes bel canto on “You Taught My Heart to Sing”.
Along with Sean Jones and Jeremy Pelt, Stafford is one of those guys that never gets the big headlines, but he lets down, always swings and always makes you beg for more. When’s the next class in session for an LA gig?