Year: 2007
Record Label: IPO Recordings
Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic
Musicians: Eddie Daniels (clarinet, tenor sax), Kenny Washington (drums), Richard Davis (bass), Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn), Benny Golson (tenor sax), James Moody (tenor sax), Frank Wess (tenor sax, flute), Hank Jones (piano), John Mosca (trombone)
Review: One More: The Summary Music of Thad Jones, Vol 2 assembles some of the most outstanding jazz musicians of our time to honor the revered trumpeter, composer and bandleader who passed away in 1986. The incredible horns are provided by Eddie Daniels (clarinet/tenor sax), Jimmy Owens (trumpet/flugelhorn), Benny Golson (tenor sax), James Moody (tenor sax), Frank Wess (tenor sax), and John Mosca appears as the trombonist. Wess also plays the flute, while Thad’s older brother Hank Jones gives us great piano chops, Kenny Washington is on drums and Richard Davis is the bassist.
On the opening track, “Little Pixie,” Mosca reminds us that the trombone has a great voice that too often goes unheard these days and later in the arrangement, Owens dazzles as his trumpet ups the ante.
The eighty-eight year old (at the time of the recording) Hank Jones gives us unbelievable piano chops and combines with the Owens’ clarinet and flautist Wess to create a lighter but spirited “Don’t Ever Leave Me” set to Michael Patterson’s arrangement.
The song that gets my vote for best in this songbook is Jerome Richardson’s “Groove Merchant,” the only non Jones composition on the record. The tune allows the quartet of sax men, Golson, Daniels, Wess and Moody to be at their spectacular best with the swinging charts. Moody who in addition to his own band performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson also lends some intermittent bebop colors to “Groove Merchant.”
Wess saves his best performance for his flute work on “Birdsong” when he engages in a call and response with Owens’ trumpet. The song also features a resounding solo by Moody.
The best saxophone solos occur during the first few minutes of the long and winding (11:25), “The Great One” but unfortunately the liner notes nor any other research identified who is playing when. “The Great One” once again highlights Hank Jones sparkling and lively piano keys and I am still shaking my head that he was eighty-eight at the time. It appears that just like a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon good jazz pianists get better with age and if that is the case Jones’ vintage should be heavily in demand.
If you like horns and you enjoy excellence then you are going to love One More: The Summary Music of Thad Jones, Vol 2 the sequel to One More: Music of Thad Jones.
Reviewed by:
Joe Montague
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