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SPIRIT OF THE HORN Slide Hampton & The World of Trombones Special Guest – Bill Watrous mcg jazz MCGJ1011

 

1. Cherokee
2. All In Love is Fair
3. A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
4. Lament/Basin street Blues
5. April in Paris
6. Lester Leaps In
7. Moment’s Notice
8. Dolphin Dance
9. Walkin’-N-Rhythm
10. Maya Blues for Eric

Trombones-Slide Hampton, Bill Watrous, Jay Ashby, Michael Boschen, Steve Davies, Hugh Fraser, David Gibson
Andre Hayward, Tim Newman (Bass), Benny Powell, Douglas Purviance (Bass), Max Seigel (Bass), Isaac Smith, David Taylor (Bass)
Marty Ashby – Guitar/Banjo
Victor Jones Drums
John Lee – Bass
Larry Wills – Piano
Recorded live at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, PA, -May 3-5, 2002.

Slide Hampton is not only a complete master of the trombone, but he is also a superb composer, arranger and musical educator. On this unique concert he used 12 trombones and a rhythm section to interesting effect. Some of the tracks also benefited from having Bill Watrous, currently one of the finest trombone soloists around. Tracks 4 to 8 are a tribute suite to some of jazz’s finest performers all had a profound influence on jazz. J J Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.

Listeners are left in no doubt that this is a collection of many of the finest trombone players around and they all solo in some part of the proceedings. The star soloists are of course Bill Watrous and Slide Hampton, but that’s what you would expect. The rhythm section is also excellent propelling the band along well. It is reasonable to have expected that interest would flag with the limited front line instrumentation, but not a bit of it, this album held my attention all the way through.

Although I am not a great Coltrane fan, I recognise his Moment’s Notice as a great jazz composition and it makes a great vehicle for the trombone players to show off their improvisational skills, similarly with Herbie Hancock’s Dolphin Dance. Walkin’-N-Rhythm has Bass bone player Tim Newman stating the theme and another interesting arrangement. Maya is a composition of David Gibson, one of the gang of twelve, an unusual piece, but well worth listening to, pianist Larry Willis solos on this one. The last track is Slide Hampton’s Blues for Eric, an ideal last number to give just about everyone a blow!

For all trombone players this CD is a must, but I recommend it to everyone who is interested in jazz. It demonstrates the art of the possible with a Trombone Band.

Don Mather

 

 

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