The Tnek Jazz Quintet - Plays The Music Of Sam Jones (2020)

The Tnek Jazz Quintet has released a new album paying homage to
one of the greatest jazz bassists to ever live. Plays the Music
of Sam Jones features bandleader Kent Miller handling the role
of Jones, who played with artists like Oscar Peterson, Bill
Evans, Cedar Walton, and Cannonball Adderley. His prolific
career included several compositions that would become
standards, like “Unit 7” and “O.P.”

“One of the things I like about Sam Jones’s music is the
intricate horn lines he wrote,” producer Ron Kearns writes in
the liner notes. “‘Bittersuite’ is basically a blues but as you
listen to the interaction between the horns you may not
immediately recognize it as blues. In fact, the horn lines and
bass interplay on ‘OP’, ‘Del Sasser’, ‘Lillie’, ‘Some More of
Dat’, and ‘Tragic Magic’ (by Kenny Barron) grab your attention
as a listener. ‘Unit 7’ was used by Cannonball as an unofficial
theme song. Anyone who wants to teach young jazz players how to
swing or play with soul just needs to put on a recording of
Cannonball and Nat playing this tune.”

The quintet is filled out by pianist Darius Scott, drummer Greg
Holloway, saxophonist Antonio Parker, and tenor saxophonist
Benny Russell. Miller honors Jones’s music by getting a
similarly large tone and non-stop walking groove. He also takes
the lead by doubling the melody on “Bittersuite” and dishing out
solos throughout.