Two of LA’s finest get together for a meeting made in jazz heaven. Pianist Josh Nelson has made a career balancing swinging small group jazz with being one of the best vocal accompanists while Mon David is one of the few distinct male singers that keeps with the jazz vocal tradition but stretches it like post bop Turkish Taffy. Together, they take on a mix of obscure and standard jazz tunes, and put together a musical mosaic that mixes melody, sensitive interplay and delicate delivery.
Nelson is the perfect safety net for David, with the listener wondering how much of this high wire act is rehearsed and how much is off the cuff, as David is intimate with his heart on his sleeve on “Did I Ever Really Live” and delivering some vocal percussion with defiant lyrics over Nelson’s hold on “Devil May Care”. The lights are low as David regrets on “Lush Life” and gives a toast over the piano supple ripples during “Here’s To Life”. David gasps in reflection on a sublime “Blame It On My Youth” and sighs to “If You Never Come To Me/Skylark”. Nelson gives his Chopinesque hands a nice stretch on a medley “In Praise Of Bill Evans” and the two give a clever take on Pat Metheny’s “Always And Forever” with the vocalist adding creative lyrics. This needs to go on the road, but please, work out the set for a few weeks in LA so we can savor it?