Pete Mills - For The Record (2025)

One of the great comfort foods in jazz is the tenor/B3/guitar/drum combo that simmers, coos and hums out melodies while leaving room for rib sticking solos. Tenor saxist Pete Mills has the perfect high protein tone for such an adventure, and with Jon Eshelman/B3, Tom Davis/eg and Zach Compston/dr, he delivers a mix of band composed material that is filling without making you feel stuffed.

Compston and Eshelman create hip shuffles that allow Mills and Davis to surf ride over the crest on pieces like the title tune, the bopping “Step On It” and throw in some classic Charlie Parker quotes on the bebopping “Bird Lives”. Mills is bel canto lyrical over Compston’s percolating drums and around Davis’ tasty pickings on “The Kid” while some soft brush work glides under the leader on a deft “Z Is For Zodiac”. The album has a rich “live” feel to it, as you can feel the Leslie’s vibrating as they frame the leader on the hip “Baby Simon”. A session that simmers.~by George W. Harris