Bob Brookmeyer - The Bob Brookmeyer Small Band (1978) [Hi-Res]

This double-album is an excellent showcase for Bob Brookmeyer's valve trombone playing. Joined by the complementary guitarist Jack Wilkins, bassist Michael Moore and drummer Joe LaBarbera, Brookmeyer stretches out on ten standards, two songs by Andy Laverne, the obscure "Passages" plus a pair of his own songs. The two-fer is one of the best examples of Brookmeyer's playing since his permanent return from semi-retirement earlier in 1978. (Scott Yanow, AMG)

The group here - Jack Wilkins, Michael Moore, and Joe LaBarbera - is "the first group I've had as a leader that I'm serious about," Bob says. "In the past, I'd think of a group in terms of a week or a month. My whole life then was sort of disposable. Night clubs were disposable, bands were disposable. But now, I've taken over my life and I have a group that I can stand up and be proud of. It's not something I feel I'll be through with after a gig and then go on to something else. This band has an intent to live."

Already, as you can hear, it is a band that sounds as if it's been together for months, even years, so quickly attentive as well as inventive are all its parts Jack Wilkins, in my view, is the most imaginative guitarist to have emerged since Jim Hall. He's been with Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, but I first heard him with Buddy Rich. In a welcome solo spot after the magnified machine-gun sound of that big band, Wilkins practically hypnotized the whole room with a ballad that kept changing shapes and colors as if it were enchanted. Then later in the same set, he swung hard enough to carry the whole band.

"Jack is a musician," says Brookmeyer, "who has all the tols to do anything he wants. And he can sound any number of different ways." Mike Moore has the same high and continually climbing reputation among musicians as does Wilkins. His credits include stretches with Woody Herman, Marian McPartland, Freddie Hubbard, the Ruby Braff-George Barnes quartet, Maria Muldaur, and Benny Goodman.

Bob Brookmeyer, trombone
Jack Wilkins, guitar
Michael Moore, bass
Joe Labarbiera, drums

Recorded "Live" July 28-29 1978 at Sandy's Jazz Revival

Digitally remastered

01 - Bob Brookmeyer - You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To (9:31)
02 - Bob Brookmeyer - Bad Agnes (4:16)
03 - Bob Brookmeyer - Someday My Prince Will Come (7:51)
04 - Bob Brookmeyer - Sweet & Lovely (8:01)
05 - Bob Brookmeyer - Madam X (7:30)
06 - Bob Brookmeyer - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (4:31)
07 - Bob Brookmeyer - Yesterdays (9:44)
08 - Bob Brookmeyer - Body & Soul (3:22)
09 - Bob Brookmeyer - Moonlight in Vermont (8:29)
10 - Bob Brookmeyer - Can't Get Started (3:22)
11 - Bob Brookmeyer - Soft Porn (7:51)
12 - Bob Brookmeyer - Everything I Love (8:54)
13 - Bob Brookmeyer - Exactly Alike (11:08)
14 - Bob Brookmeyer - Passages (9:57)
15 - Bob Brookmeyer - (Bob's Theme) It's a Wonderful World (5:43)