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Mitch Seidman, electric and acoustic guitars; Mark Shilansky, piano; Paul Del Nero, acoustic bass; Luther Gray, drums.
How 'Bout It succeeds as a tribute to the music of such guitar masters as Django Reinhardt, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, and others. In general, these are tightly controlled chord-based performances that follow challenging head/solos/head arrangements. In keeping with the general character of the music, improvisation based on thematic material other than conventional chord structures is largely absent. A case in point is the late Tal Farlow's "And She Remembers Me," which in spite of its opening phrase in fourths, is the standard, "I'll Remember April." The group's inventiveness and dialogue are apparent in Attila Zoller's "Hungarian Jazz Rhapsody," where chords are subsumed in favor of a prevailing tonal center. The only thing that's missing here is music by Grant Green, who was also a great innovator on his instrument, but perhaps that's the subject of another session.
by James D. Armstrong, Jr.
More New Sounds
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Jazz Now Interactive
Copyright Jazz Now, November 2001 issue,
all rights reserved
jazzinfo@jazznow.com