Steve Grossman - In New York (1991)

For his second Dreyfus Jazz album, Grossman ventures into New York's Sweet Basil club, with a stellar piano trio (McCoy Tyner, Avery Sharp, Art Taylor) in tow. With this kind of firepower, the listener is usually guaranteed a satisfying level of cooking jazz, and that's certainly what we get here, though it seldom rises above that into a higher region. Grossman's tune choices are mostly predictable standards, the one exception being his own cheeky title "Love for Sal," a bop-style number where the bass and then the piano double the tune's lead sax statement. Throughout, Grossman likes to fire away the eighth notes in that pungent, Sonny Rollins-influenced tenor tone, with Tyner often temporarily (and generously) dropping out so that the saxophonist can develop freer melodic patterns over the bass and drums. "Impressions" -- taken virtually at Tyner's late employer John Coltrane's tempo -- does achieve a special ignition, driven hard by Taylor, with some exploration of multiphonics by an inspired Grossman. Otherwise, a mostly solid live session of post-bop. © Richard S. Ginell