Featured Artist: Bob Szajner Triad II

CD Title: Center\\\Cuts

Year: 2007

Record Label: RMS007 Records

Style: BeBop / Hard Bop

Musicians: Bob Szajner (composer, piano), Ed Pickens (bass), Frank Isola (drums 1-5), Mike Gutierrez (drums 6-10).

Review: Center\Cuts is a collection of bop and hard bop tunes recorded live at The Detroit Jazz Center World Stage.

Marked by easy, infectious melodies and grooves, and steady swinging basslines, this disc features some nice solos and exchanges between musicians. Especially of note is track #3, which features a twanging and swift-fingered bass solo, and upbeat, snappy drums.

Arrangements are straight-forward and simply structured. The true essence of jazz improvisation is displayed here. A good listen.

Also from Szajner is Triad II, The Lost Tapes.

Recorded in 1981, this disc is a behind the scenes recording session: raw and real. Featuring Ed Pickens on bass, Frank Isola on drums, and Bob Szajner (composer) on piano.

And lastly, The Best of Triad by The Bob Szajner Triad on RMS007 Records. This disc Features the late Roy Brooks on drums and Ray McKinney on bass. The collection contains a combination of earlier released albums: The Bob Szajner Triad, a 3-record set and released individually as Jazz Opus 20/40, Sound Ideas, and Afterthoughts.

This is unrehearsed, live jazz played without retakes. It results in a highly improvised, spontaneous, but still very cohesive musical undertaking. Very enjoyable if you can do without fancy sound engineering and other audio enhancements.

This CD is straight up acoustic jazz with some excellent solos throughout. Szajner brings it all together with some smooth arrangements and Roy Brooks and Ray McKinney are two musicians not only worth mentioning, but celebrated for their contributions to jazz music.

Reviewed by: Veronica Timpanelli

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