This may be a debut album by guitarist Eric Zolan, but he sounds like a veteran, as he’s already learned the value of not what to play, but what to NOT play, on this tasty session with organist Brian Charette and drummer Jordan Young. His style is in the mode of guys like Johnny Smith, inherently swinging, but using each note and space to say something important. The classic organ format will remind you of Wes Montgomery’s early albums, with that “nightclub” feel permeating the whole session.
The title tune is a tasty and subtle blues oozing with lyricism, while the team digs in deep and Charette hums like a V8 around Young’s tap tap tapping cymbals on “Caught on Tape”. Vintage Blue Note laid back funk a la Baby Willette smokes like a Cubano on “D.D.L.O.D”, and the team getting nimble on a soul stirring “The Horror”. Zolan shows his romantic side as he serenades on the hazy “Neo Cortez” while riding the long board through Young’s sleek shuffle on the crisp “Don’t Start Believing”. This guy already plays like he has nothing to prove, and that proves a lot.