The Classic Sessions

Album review

Rhythm guitarist Marty Grosz has been a central figure squarely placed in the vintage/traditional/swing era/hot jazz style. He's in many ways a one-of-a-kind artist as a performer, while priding himself as an archivist, historian, and song excavator. The Hot Winds band that Grosz surrounds himself for this recording is loaded with multi-instrumentalists like Scott Robinson, Dan Block, and Vince Giordano, wielding an array of woodwind and brass instruments, especially from the clarinet family. Yes, everything on this recording is from that bygone era of jazz, while the tracks are filled with the counterpoint and layered ideas that sparked the initial forays into improvisation that makes jazz vital, enjoyable, unique, and exciting. What Grosz and crew accomplish is pretty much major league in terms of how they sustain interest through and through by mixing and matching front-line instruments, conceiving a new way to play these tunes with every twist and turn. Check out their "fusion" of three different melody phrases during the upbeat original "Love & Kisses," a load of fun for all. Fans of Fats Waller can't be denied their ebullience, and this combo is no different on the bluesy instrumental "Caught" or the uptown strutter "The Panic Is On," with vocals from Grosz. Some very obscure numbers are discovered, like the lively car chase tune "My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now" featuring a ribald vocal from Giordano, the straight Chicago-style Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey composition "Riverside Blues," Duke Ellington's "Rent Party Blues" with two clarinets and the banjo of Grosz, and the quite unknown blues "When Buddha Smiles," featuring baritone sax, C-melody sax, and the peckhorn. The one non-swing entity "Maori" is in a calypso beat with the spirited banjo of the leader slyly jutting and ducking. Perhaps the one song that stands apart is the resurrected Ethel Waters song "I Just Couldn't Take It Baby," with the singing of the leader digging deep into the black bottom spectrum. Robinson's clarinet, soprano, baritone sax, or cornet, Block's clarinet, alto, baritone sax, and bass clarinet, Giordano's upright bass, tuba, bass sax, and the mysterious Panic Slim on trombone for five tracks allow the variations and diverse sounds closer to a full-blown big band. For those who enjoy early period jazz as it was invented, this is a marvelous example of how it should be, and still can be done.

© Michael G. Nastos /TiVo