CD Review: Jof Lee, Tim Gilson, Mel Brown, “Live At Salty’s”

SAPHU SCD-0028: $15.00

What The Critics Say:

LIVE AT SALTY’S:
Live At Salty’s: Jof Lee-piano, Tim Gilson-bass, Mel Brown-drums.

Salty’s is more a fine dinner house than it is a jazz club per se. However, someone in Salty’s management decided quite a number of years ago that fine dining and jazz form a pretty nice alliance. One of the stellar jazz groups well established there has been the Lee, Gilson, Brown trio, and this welcome recording puts them in the spotlight. The trio opens with a Lockjaw Davis blues called “Light And Lovely” and then moves into a refreshed Bacharach-David pop tune, “The Look Of Love.” The tune never had it so good. On “Blue Moon,” an old Rodgers and Hart warhorse, Jof Lee finds lots of new angles and possibilities. After a satisfying romp through “Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams,” Gilson introduces, of all things, “Billy Boy.” And why not? Ahmad Jamal and Oscar Peterson both reveled in it back in the day. The guys explore “Old Devil Moon” with a near modal approach. Bring on the blues – and what better example than “Basin Street Blues.” That’s followed by the vamp from “All Blues,” but it’s a hoax, as the trio winds into “Willow Weep For Me.” Very nifty. Don’t miss the “Rhythm-A-Ning” quote on “Taking A Chance On Love,” and winding up this satisfying and swinging CD is Jof’s terrific melody line on his original, “Mambo Jambo.” This is classic piano trio jazz at its finest. How lucky we are to have musicians of this caliber right here in our own backyard!

George Fendel, Jazzscene Magazine

May. 23, 2009 | Reviews