If you’ve ever been to a Monty Alexander gig, you don’t need to be convinced twice to grab a disc of live shows. This is the follow-up to the highly successful Uplift of a couple years ago. It’s just as smile producing as the first. Again, we’ve got Alexander with a pair of trios-either with John Clayton/b & Jeff Hamilton/dr or Hassan Shakur/b & Frits Landesbergen/dr. The moods range from a back beat shuffle like”Battle Hymn” to a sauntering take of Ellington’s “I Love You Madly,” all the while Alexander sweating out the job like Jackie Wilson at the Copa. “When The Saints Go Marching” has a bouncy bop and Alexander touches in with his inner Errol Garner on the fluid and rhapsodic reading of “You Are My Sunshine.” He gets back to his Caribbean roots with a drum driven version of Sonny Rollins’ “St Thomas” and lets his fingers fly off their carpals on “Night Mist Blues.” You’ll have as big a smile on your face after this disc as the people did walking out of the club these nights from long ago.
JLP Records
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