Best known for his work on piano and keyboards (and even sometimes trombone) with the likes of Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather (as well as holding down the piano chair on Jimmy Kimmel Live), Angeleno Jeff Babko brings together a trio of locals with drummer Mark Guiliani and bassist Tim Lefebvre for a swinging night at jazz haven Sam First Bar. The double vinyl album is captures the creativity and ingenuity of the threesome, focusing mostly on originals and one jazz standard.
Of the latter, a take of Thelonious Monk’s “Boo Boo’s Birthday” fits in well with the band’s worldview, as Babko’s piano skips merrily along before the three change gears and dynamics. This popping of the musical clutch takes place a number of times, as on the gospel tinged “The Church of Bill Hilton” that swings easy and then digs in, while “This West” features some lovely ivories before Guiliiani and Lefebvre rev up the engine.
Babko plugs in as well, with some electronic friskiness around the Levebre’s rivulet on “New Wave Theater” while the opus of “Fugue Robotique” has Babko mixing splashy keys and piano ideas to some funky fusioned frenzies. Babko is reflective on Guiliana’s “New Jersey Ballad” and marvelously wondrous on his solo read of the same tune in a second version. The spontaneity and creativity of this recording perfectly captures the best and brightest of the LA jazz scene.