Jay Thomas and Michael Van Bebber - The Promise (2019)

Real nice hard bop session. Plenty of energy, the kind of bop locomotion that generates an embracing warmth while simultaneously lighting a fire under everything. It offers up some covers of standards and tunes by George Coleman and Lennie Tristano, but the real gems of this recording are the original compositions by pianist Yuki Hirate. Hirate builds plenty of beauty into the framework of the composition, but also leaves space for the quintet to develop things according to their own perspective. A fun recording, and in the context of a modern jazz scene where the sound is more diverse and divergent than at any other time in its history, it’s nice to encounter a straight-ahead session that is both familiar and exciting. Music from Seattle, Washington.