Howard Alden & Dave McKenna - Further On (2021)

• Part of the '80s swing movement, Howard Alden is a brilliant guitarist (on both electric and acoustic) who has also mastered the seven-string guitar and the banjo. Alden started off playing banjo in Dixieland bands in pizza parlors in Southern California. When he acquired a guitar, he took lessons from Jimmy Wyble and Howard Roberts. He worked at Disneyland when he was 18 and in 1978 debuted in the big leagues with Red Norvo. Since moving to New York in 1982, Alden has worked with many great veterans (such as Ruby Braff, Kenny Davern, Woody Herman, Benny Carter, Monty Alexander, Flip Phillips, and George Van Eps) and contemporaries (including Dan Barrett, Warren Vache, and Ken Peplowski), recording frequently for Concord and on one occasion (a Harry Reser tribute set) on banjo for Stomp Off. Howard Alden is at the top of the field among swing revivalists and yet is flexible enough to record a Bill Evans tribute. ~ Scott Yanow

• One of the top swing-based pianists of the past 25 years, Dave McKenna's hard-driving basslines give momentum to uptempo pieces, and his vast knowledge of superior songs from the 1930s has resulted in many rewarding albums of traditional but fresh music. Although talented from the start, McKenna did not achieve that much recognition until he was already in his forties. He joined the Musicians' Union when he was 15 and picked up early experience playing with Boots Mussulli (1947), Charlie Ventura (1949), and Woody Herman's Orchestra (1950-1951). After two years in the military, McKenna had a second stint with Ventura (1953-1954) and then worked with a variety of top swing and Dixieland players including Gene Krupa, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Eddie Condon, Bobby Hackett, and Bob Wilber (in the late '70s), and was a soloist at piano bars in Massachusetts. McKenna had recorded for ABC-Paramount (1956), Epic (1958), Bethlehem (a two-piano date shared with Hall Overton in 1960), and Realm (1963), but in 1973, McKenna's talents finally began to be more fully documented. He led sets for Halycon, Shiah, Famous Door, Inner City (with vocalist Teddi King), and four for Chiaroscuro. And then in 1979 with No Bass Hit (a trio date with Scott Hamilton and Jake Hanna), McKenna debuted with Concord, finding his home. He has made many sessions for Concord ever since, some as a sideman or with small groups, but the best ones being unaccompanied recitals. In the mid-'90s Dave McKenna was at the top of his field. ~ Scott Yanow