Well respected as a first call session musician, bassist Sean O’Bryan
Smith gets together with an all star congregation to deliver music from
the most long lasting songbook on earth: Christian Spirituals and
Hymns. When you think Crosby here, it ain’t Bing, but Fanny, who wrote
about 4000 worship songs such as “Blessed Assurance” (played
marvelously here with a sanctified rhythm section) while BLIND, my
friends. More contemporary material such as “Blessed Be Your Name” or
“Mighty To Save,” are ample examples that music made for acknowledging
the Almighty doesn’t have to bore you or be played by musicians in
gowns. Guys like Chuck Loeb/g, Gerald Albright/as, Frank Catalano/ts,
and Randy Brecker get rolling in the aisles on “Will The Circle Be
Unbroken,” while Smith displays his gifts on a testimonial with
vocalist Lisa Hearns on the ruminating “Me Without You.” The only blip
on this contemporary jazz set is the closing “Reflection,” which
includes some mood breaking rap/preaching by Malcolm Jamal-Warner, but
it’s a minor quibble, as my old church choir director used to say,
“better to be strong and wrong, than right and light.”