Paul Silbergleit: The Hidden Standard

Guitarist Paul Silbergleit creates some fresh sounds from songs we’re all familiar with on this bopping album with a rich horn section of Eric Schoor/ts-ss, Eric Jacobson/tp, a rhythm team of Mark Davis/p, Jeff Haman/b and Dave Bayles/dr and guest appearances by Robert Figueroa/caj, Amy Penington/perc and Bony  Plog-Benavides/con-bong. The percussionists show up mostly for a rich Afro-Cuban take of the Irish classic “Danny Boy” with Schoor’s tenor sax taking on the textued support. The two horn front line is vintage hard bop, going dep and modal on Joe Henderson’s “Inner Urge” along with Hamann’s dexterous solo, and burning up the modal take of “Happiness”. Most fun is the relaxed shuffle of The Beatle’s “Eleanor Rigby” with Jacobson giving some polished brass, and a simmering hip shaker of Burt Bacharach’s “Close To You” with the rhythm section digging deep. For himself, Silbergleit has clear strings as he floats through the cymbals on Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and giving some pastel acoustic work for “Sometimes It Snows In April”. Silbergleit and company make the word “jazz” a verb here, in its rightful place of “jazzing” up familiar tracks.

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