1 - Spoken Introduction
2 - Tin Tin Deo
3 - Raincheck
4 - Listen to the Dawn
5 - Blue Bossa
6 - Be Yourself
7 - Bass Face
8 - In a Sentimental Mood
9 - Mark I
10 - Bags' Groove
Kenny Burrell - Guitar
Tivon Pennicott - Tenor sax, flute
Benny Green - Piano
Peter Washington - Bass
Clayton Cameron - Drums
There's something special about a live jazz session. A studio can produce a good recording but there is seldom the atmosphere that you get in a concert performance. Perhaps this is because an audience is present or because you know that the musicians are improvising on the spur of the moment, without any chance for redubs or reruns. This album was recorded in 2008 at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York's Lincoln Center. Kenny Burrell was already in his late seventies but his guitar playing seems ageless. He has always managed to inject warmth and blues feeling into his jazz performances, and this whole set makes you want to dance as well as listen.
As the group was at Dizzy's Club, they start with Dizzy Gillespie's composition Tin Tin Deo, which opens gracefully with Burrell's cool guitar and features a spacious solo from young tenorist Tivon Pennicott, who also sparkles on flute in such tunes as the entrancing Listen to the Dawn. Pianist Benny Green is well known for his educated soloing. Clayton Cameron's random rimshot clicks are distracting here and in the next track, but Peter Washington's solid bass and Benny Green's judicious comping hold the music together.
All Burrell's solos are stylish and well-constructed, and he lets the other players have space for solos. Benny Green is allowed a good workout on Billy Strayhorn's Raincheck, and his solo on Blue Bossa is wonderfully fluid. Burrell's original Be Yourself is a solo track where the guitar sounds like a whole orchestra. Burrell also wrote Bass Face, which spotlights Peter Washington, whose full-toned double bass speaks cogently.
In a Sentimental Mood focuses on the soulful tenor sax of Tivon Pennicott - obviously a musician of great promise. Tivon plays the tune as a ballad, then doubles the tempo into gentle swing before an eloquent closing cadenza. The sleeve-note quotes Kenny Burrell's observation that this tune is "melodically and harmonically sophisticated and yet simple at the same time", adding "Tivon's playing here outstandingly represents the past, present and future of this music".
Mark 1 is an up-tempo number which brings out the bluesiness in Burrell's playing. Clayton Cameron does a rather messy drum solo. The album ends with another bluesy number: Bags' Groove, which has a neat follow-my-leader conversation between tenor sax and guitar.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
HighNote HCD 7208
