Nothing like a bopping piano trio…
Hard bop vets Mike Clark/dr, Leon Lee Dorsey/b and Mike LeDonne/p get together for a hard swinging set that is about as live sounding as you’d ever imagine. Usually noted for his B3 work, LeDonne sounds right at home striding out the shuffling read of The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” and gives a gorgeously glassy intro to the bass featured “Angel Eyes”. Clark is in top form, snapping like snow peas on the title tune, sifting with Dorsey on “Stolen Moments” and giving a Headhunters’ patented backbeat to “Lock It In The Pocket”. LeDonne strides right on “Birk’s Workds’ and there’s more hipness to “Jacob’s Ladder” than a sacro-iliac convention. Deep rivulets of joy.
The recently departed Frank Kimbrough seemed to be underappreciated during his short time on earth, and thankfully Palmetto Records is reissuing a couple of his albums to help us re-evaluate his catalogue. Here, we have a 2 disc set of 2004’s Lullabluebye and from 2006 Play. The first one has Kimbrohgh twith bassist Ben Allison and drummer Matt Wilson, and includes a clever read of the James Bond theme “You Oly Live Twice”. He shows and influence of Monk and Andrew Hill on pieces like “Ben’s Tune”, “Centering” and “Ode” with dancing fingers with Allison on “Kid Stuff” . The next release with Masa Kamaguchi/b and the legendary Paul Motian/dr is just as strong, still showing shades of Monk on “The Spins”, while going Bill Evans dark and romantic on ”Waiting In Santader” and “Jimmy G”. Like all of the top tier pianists, Kimbrough had his own style and sound, and hopefully he can get appreciation posthumously.