Colin Steele Quartet - Diving for Pearls Jazz Interpretations of the Pearlfishers Songbook (2017)

Steele has a long association with The Pearl fishers since he appeared as a studio musician on many of their albums. Steele: "I'd played on many sessions with The Pearl fishers before, and have a similar taste in music with David Scott, with our shared love of Burt Bacharach, Beatles and Beach Boys. I was impressed by the depth of the beautiful melodies and could immediately hear my own voice playing these melodies - specifically using the 'Miles Davis sound' of the Harmon mute." The results are simply gorgeous. The album kick-starts with the joyous blast of "The Bluebells" - a song that originally appeared on the Pearl fishers album "Up With The Larks". Colin Steele makes it swing and rise just beautifully. His warm, melodic playing and tone is also a perfect match for the wonderful "Everything Works Out", one of Scott's most enduring songs. "The Vampires Of Camelon" rides on a great piano riff reminiscent of Vince Guaraldi - brilliantly played by Dave Milligan, Steele's long-time collaborator, who also arranged the album. Quite fabulously so.