HERLIN RILEY - New Direction
Mack Avenue Mac1101
Herlin Riley - drums; Emmet Cohen - piano; Russell Hall - bass; Bruce Harris - trumpet; Godwin Lewis - alto & soprano sax; Perdrito Martinez - conga; Mark Whitfield - guitar
“Whirlin’ Herlin Riley’s name may not be well known to UK audiences but he’s an integral part of the neo-bop movement driven forward by fellow New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis, and has held down the chair in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra since 1992, having previously toured with Ahmad Jamal. Given this pedigree, you might expect a very retro set of swing standards, but instead this fine record presents a young band of relative unknowns playing a set of original compositions that range widely across the contemporary landscape of the musical jazz mainstream. The title track kicks proceedings off with a crisp straight 8s groove underpinning Whitfield’s Grant Green flavoured guitar explorations; ‘Spring Fantasy’ has an accessible, latin-tinged soul-jazz feel reminiscent of the Jazz Crusaders; ‘The Crossbar” features Cuban conga supremo Pedrito Martinez in a thrilling afro-latin drum workout, and ‘Tootie Ma’ evokes the spirit of Horace Silver via Roy Hargrove and Riley’s tambourine-shaking New Orleans heritage. So far, so straightahead, but the rhythmic complexity of ‘The Big Banana” and ‘Hiccup Smooth” demonstrate an awareness of some of the more esoteric developments of recent years, and integrate them seamlessly into the template. Riley’s young sidekicks play up very well, especially Harris on trumpet and Hall on bass, and the whole adds up to a very well-judged package of the new straight-ahead, with a nice balance between hot blowing and strong writing, and plenty of stylistic variety that never feels too disparate to undermine the project’s identity - it’s the work of a man confident of his own identity within the tradition, and happy to move things forward, which you might say is the best aspect of the Marsalis legacy.
Reviewd by Eddie Myer
Mack Avenue Mac1101
Herlin Riley - drums; Emmet Cohen - piano; Russell Hall - bass; Bruce Harris - trumpet; Godwin Lewis - alto & soprano sax; Perdrito Martinez - conga; Mark Whitfield - guitar
“Whirlin’ Herlin Riley’s name may not be well known to UK audiences but he’s an integral part of the neo-bop movement driven forward by fellow New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis, and has held down the chair in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra since 1992, having previously toured with Ahmad Jamal. Given this pedigree, you might expect a very retro set of swing standards, but instead this fine record presents a young band of relative unknowns playing a set of original compositions that range widely across the contemporary landscape of the musical jazz mainstream. The title track kicks proceedings off with a crisp straight 8s groove underpinning Whitfield’s Grant Green flavoured guitar explorations; ‘Spring Fantasy’ has an accessible, latin-tinged soul-jazz feel reminiscent of the Jazz Crusaders; ‘The Crossbar” features Cuban conga supremo Pedrito Martinez in a thrilling afro-latin drum workout, and ‘Tootie Ma’ evokes the spirit of Horace Silver via Roy Hargrove and Riley’s tambourine-shaking New Orleans heritage. So far, so straightahead, but the rhythmic complexity of ‘The Big Banana” and ‘Hiccup Smooth” demonstrate an awareness of some of the more esoteric developments of recent years, and integrate them seamlessly into the template. Riley’s young sidekicks play up very well, especially Harris on trumpet and Hall on bass, and the whole adds up to a very well-judged package of the new straight-ahead, with a nice balance between hot blowing and strong writing, and plenty of stylistic variety that never feels too disparate to undermine the project’s identity - it’s the work of a man confident of his own identity within the tradition, and happy to move things forward, which you might say is the best aspect of the Marsalis legacy.
Reviewd by Eddie Myer
