Today’s trumpets…
Post bop trumpeter and composer Kerry Moffit leads a team of Seth Ebersole/ts-as, Rob Kilips-Altin Sencalar/tb, Arlene Pritchard McDaniel-Luther Allison/key, Terry Newman/b and Ian LeVine/dr through a nice mix of jazz standards and originals. The horns are fluid and warm on a read of Hank Mobley’s “This I Dig of You” and breeze through the West Coast Cool of “Just A Few”. Most enjoyable is a gorgeous sonata with McDaniel on the sublime “But Beautiful” while the leader’s take of Woody Shaw’s “Katrina Ballerina” shows where his allegiances lay. Sencalar is big and bold with Moffit on “Free For All” and the brass bops hard for “M.L.” with the keys lurking around the ominous “10-4 Jam”. Glistening brass.
Rich toned trumpeter Jared Hall mixes his own tunes with that of bop master composer Tadd Dameron with his team of Vincent Herring/as, John Hansen/p, Michael Glynn/b and Matt Jorgensen/dr. It’s a good call to delve into the underrated Dameron songbook, with two takes of “If You Could See Me Now” featuring sublime conversations between Hall and Hansen. A Latinized “Mating Call” has Herring searing over the pulsations, and a read of the cinema piece “Theme From Love Story” is a loose and mellow affair introduced by Glynn. Hall gives some rich work on the post modern title tune and lurks darkly around Hansen on the dramatic “Farewell”. Original lacquer on the brass.