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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Recent Listening: Dave Young And Friends

February 19, 2019 by Doug Ramsey

Dave Young, Lotus Blossom (Modica Music)

Young, the bassist praised by Oscar Peterson for his “harmonic simpatico and unerring sense of time” when he was a member of Peterson’s trio, leads seven gifted fellow Canadians. His beautifully recorded bass is the underpinning of a relaxed session in which his swing is a force even during quiet moments. That is apparent beginning in the classic Billy Strayhorn composition that gives the album its title. With Renee Rosnes at the piano and Terry Clarke drumming, Young solos on the bridge section of all three choruses of the tune, his sound at once penetrating, soft and muscular. There is much else to recommend the album, but its character arises from Young’s tonal quality. Rosnes and guitarist Reg Schwager each achieve reflective, swinging bossa relaxation in “Modinha,” an Antonio Carlos Jobim tune played less often than many of the composer’s better- known creations. This version may bring it greater attention.

Schwager finds the swinging, humorous, center of “Red Cross,” a Charlie Parker “I Got Rhythm” variation dating from 1944. Schwager’s guitar gets first billing in the Dexter Gordon composition “Fried Bananas,” based on the harmonies of “It Could Happen To You,” but Clarke’s drum solo comes close to stealing the track. The veteran Bernie Senensky takes over the piano chair in Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia” and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “I Thought About You,” in which the fluidity of Senensky’s solo is advanced by Clarke’s inspired brushes and cymbals, and Young phrases his solo as if he were a horn player. The album closes with two guest artists who are horn players, trumpeter Kevin Turcotte and tenor saxophonist Perry White. They each solo on “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise.” Young has another penetrating bass solo, then the horns circle one another before they end the track and the album in close—really close—harmony.

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Comments

  1. Wayne Tucker says

    February 20, 2019 at 7:42 am

    Doug,
    Thanks for the review and a great tip on a musician I knew only through an excellent Lenny Breaux live album.. I bought this new one immediately on the strength of your review and am greatly enjoying it as I type. Jazz continues to live because of people who care as much as you do.

  2. Lee Schell says

    February 28, 2019 at 8:14 am

    Doug,

    I can’t seem to find a full range Audio CD of this project. Amazon seems to only offer an MP3 version. Any amplification on this?

    Lee

    • Doug Ramsey says

      February 28, 2019 at 8:29 pm

      The only address I could find for Modica Music, which released the album, is davidjohnmodia@gmail.com. You might try ordering it directly from the label. The Rifftides review was based on an advance CD sent by Modica Music’s publicist. Good luck. Let me know what happens, please.

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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