It is a pleasure listening to the work of Marvin Stamm, anytime! Stamm is a musician's musician, performing flawlessly on his trumpet and flugelhorn. He has been around for a while, as the saying goes, and during that time has performed with such artists as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Duke Pearson, Benny Goodman, Bill Evans, Quincy Jones, Oliver Nelson, Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Patrick Williams, Michel Legrand, Frank Foster, Paul Desmond, George Benson, and also with vocalists Barbra Streisand, Lena Horn, Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and the Rolling Stones. Stamm is also a gifted teacher and mentor.

His new CD release is perfect and the production values are very high, making this one of the finest CDs of its type created this year! THE STAMM/SOPH PROJECT is the title, and the collection contains 74:15 minutes of the nicest contemporary jazz to come down the pike in a long time!

Selections include "Three And One," "Nardis," "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," "Lament," "Bick's Bag," "No Hurry," "Joy Spring," "Hip Hop Blues," "Who's 'At Talkin'?," and the memorable Willard Robison song titled "Old Folks." Each song reveals in solo performance why Marvin Stamm is considered one of the great living jazz performers!

Stamm's solo work on Miles Davis' masterpiece, "Nardis," is without peer and perfect in every note; such a performance is worthy of airplay time, frequently. Lars Jansson's "Hip Hop Blues" is given a unique spin by Stamm and his group. This group loves what it is doing and shares that feeling with its jazz listeners!

For a jazz pianist who always performs well, Bill Mays puts his winning touch on each of these selections. Mays has two compositions on this CD, "Bick's Bag" and "No Hurry," two fine jazz songs that allow the jazz listener to become part of the listening experience which is Mays --- his piano work dazzles, whether done in straight-forward jazz tones or in complex simplicity of emotion. Mays is one of the contemporary greats in jazz piano. A true jazz artist of the piano, Mays is a welcome addition to any performance!

Ed Soph on drums and Rufus Reid on bass need no introduction to the jazz community at large, for their work is well-known and always entertaining and innovative! The same applies to the many talents of saxophonist Dave Liebman. As a group, this is a tour de force of great jazz instrumental playing! This CD is jazz entertainment at its best, and most enjoyable!

If you like the jazz trumpet of Marvin Stamm and the jazz piano of Bill Mays, you will want to purchase a copy of this CD as soon as possible. If somebody asked me for a gift to give somebody who is new to jazz, I would suggest this CD, for it has everything jazz has to offer, and then some!

Excellent! Five stars! Highly original! A classic in the making, and the selection titled "Old Folks" earns its place among jazz original performances with its unique shadings of sound!