Drummer Lee McKinney leads a bopping quartet of Matt Cooper/p, Chris Berg/b and Greg Abate/as-ss-fl on this confident collection of hard bop-styled originals. McKinney’s drums serve as a strong frame for these portraits, dedicated to the likes of drummers such as Art Blakey, Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones, as well as other inspirations.
With Abate’s Phil Woods-hinted alto, McKinney and company sizzle on “The Jazz Messenger”, while the team bops till it drops on “Bird’s Eye View, with McKinney and Berg as crisp as snow peas. The sticks give a nifty intro to “Lenwood” before Berg gets some solo space, and the brushes assuage the graceful “Rebecca”. Abate’s soprano is sweet around the Latin lilt of “A Living Doll” as Cooper’s ivories chime and charm, and his flute glides over the Brazilian “Samba De La Vamos Nos” like a hawk. Cool shades of heat.