Smokin' Java

Overview

This session, done in Rochester, NY, at the Little Theatre, has pianist Grant consistently kicking his very talented quintet in high gear and locking horns with some heady, modern mainstream jazz. Alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, vibist Joe Locke, bassist Bob Stata, and drummer Brian Blade are more than capable bandmates, while Grant is growing and progressing as a leader and a distinctive melodist in a post-Wynton Kelly/Cedar Walton/Herbie Hancock mold. Things start off with Bill Lee's wonderful composition "Little Jimmy Fiddler." It's a two note/same note, head noddin' swing groove, piano chord driven and well responded to by Harrison and Locke. It's worth the price of the CD on its own, but there's much more as a kinetic, modal ostinato intro and sub-melody informs the Locke-led "If I Should Lose You." A slight samba feel buoys a dramatic reading from Grant and Stata on the Harrison-led line of "You Must Believe in Spring." Grant's impressive writing skill comes to the forefront on the bright and exuberant "Spring Skylight," with all front liners together in a 4/4 beat with 6/8 insert breaks. Pensive piano and flying vibes shift and turn on the tearjerker duet "Goodbye," the introspective, meditative Carmen Lundy ballad "Quiet Times" slows the pace, while the hard charging Locke original "Slander" uses six insistent bass notes glued into four beats per measure. This is getting to be a present day standard. The out-and-out bopping title track is loaded with double stops and reveals that, though at the end of the set, they have much more energy and wit stockpiled. Is there a second set in the can? Credits are a little sketchy. There's no recording date, and where you hear crowd noise on some cuts, it is apparently edited out on others. "Spring Skylight" is prematurely faded out. Nonetheless, this is a fine recording from Grant, further evidence as to his increasing cachet as one of the more talented thirty-something neo-boppers. He's also a great storyteller; check out the liner note treatise on the jazz life. Easily recommended.

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