Jim stranahan leads a pair of bands here while playing just about anything with a reed on a collection of fascinatingly arranged charts from both studio and concert settings. The smaller group with Brad Good/tp, Wade Sander/tb, Glan Zaleski/p, Rick Rosato/b and Colin Strnahan/dr includes a quirky and fun blues with a horn section that puts a smile on your face on “Blues and a Half” while “St. Thomas” features some hip piano and bass work in between the hot brass and reeds. A wild and wooly take of “Donna Lee’ has some bewitching multitracking by piano, bass and sax, and the team bops to 52nd Street on “Straight from the Source.” The larger band adds flute on the fun and dramatic “Mambo Facil” that takes you to the front row of a bull fight, and trombones and soprano saxes get funky on the Crescent City snapper “Bayou Bounce.”
Tapestry Records