1. Low Down
2. Wave
3. The Nearness of You
4. I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues
5. Broadway
6. Right on Time (Db Tune)
7. Squatty Roo
8. With Every Breath I Take
9. Lined with a Groove
10. In a Mellotone
Graham Dechter - Guitar
Tamir Hendelman - Piano
John Clayton - Bass
Jeff Hamilton - Drums
When he was only 19, guitarist Graham Dechter was invited by Jeff
Hamilton to join the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, becoming its
youngest member. This debut album as a leader shows why Dechter was
fit to join that great orchestra, having not only played with them
but also with such musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Bill Charlap, Wycliffe
Gordon and Clark Terry.
Graham Dechter is joined on this CD by three colleagues from the
Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra and the album is a delight from start to
finish. Graham is a guitarist who might be categorized as a worthy
successor to Wes Montgomery, as his style often resembles Wes, although
without so much use of those famous octaves. Dechter has plenty of
expertise at his fingertips (literally) and is very ably accompanied
by the rhythm section. Jeff Hamilton's drumming adds much to the album's
success, with his perfect fills, solos and punctuations, as well as
his unfailing swing. John Clayton is a steady bassist and gets a bowed
solo in With Every Breath I Take and a swinging outing on
In a Mellotone. Pianist Tamir Hendelman is perhaps less well-known
but he contributes some radiantly lucid backing, although he might
have been allowed more solo space (Dechter takes the lion's share).
What is particularly attractive about this album is the varied repertoire,
which retains one's interest not only by the quality of the playing
but through the variety of tempos and styles. In addition, most tunes
include some finely-judged ensemble passages which help to make this
more than a mere blowing session.
The opener - Low Down - displays Graham's affinity with Wes
Montgomery at the sort of easily swinging tempo in which Montgomery
used to revel. The tempo changes to a bossa nova for Antonio Carlos
Jobim's seductive Wave, in which the guitar melody is shadowed
by the double bass, which contributes a well-constructed solo. Jeff
Hamilton almost makes his drums speak on this one.
The Nearness of You is taken as a placid ballad, which features
the guitar and goes into a bouncy double tempo during Graham's solo.
Tamir Hendelman adds a piano solo which is all too short. The mood
switches again with Duke Ellington's I Ain't Got Nothin' but the
Blues, where Graham plays superbly bluesy guitar, heftily backed
by Hamilton's thundering drums. Then it's back to up-tempo swing for
Broadway.
Right on Time was written by Graham's father, Brad Dechter,
and it's an intriguingly convoluted piece, originally entitled Db
Tune. Tamir Hendelman's piano solo is a joy. Squatty Roo
is the second of three Ellingtonian compositions on the CD - actually
written by Johnny Hodges - and it makes a suitable vehicle for Jeff
Hamilton's sure-footed drumming. Hendelman does an impressively fast
but secure solo.
After the aforementioned With Every Breath I Take, John Clayton
is featured in Lined with a Groove - playing a Ray Brown composition
on a double bass which was owned by Ray. The CD closes with one of
my favourite pieces of Ellingtonia - In a Mellotone - an ideal
vehicle for serene swing, ending an altogether satisfying album, brilliantly
recorded.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Capri 74096-2
