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going somewhere
Weighs in as the most conventional and straightforward of the batch, at least in terms of instrumentation and stylistic content. Rothbard’s mug, featured front and center on the album cover, is an archetype of hipster cool with spectacle shades, leather cap, and well-groomed goatee all accounted for. His trio mates, noticeable positioned a few steps into the background, affect a less obvious air in their stances and attire. The arrangement carries over to the music on the disc with Rothbard front and center, rolling out the frills and relishing his place in the limelight. Gold and Strasser seem congenially content to sit back in their assigned supportive roles most of the time. The chosen material ranges from in-the-pocket funk through well-crafted soul Jazz to thoughtful balladry. Stasser’s fluid backbeats fuel “The Place,” a Rothbard authored groove that wouldn’t be out of place on a Boogaloo Jones or Jimmy Ponder platter forty years past. Rothbard reels out crisp chords and Gold largely comps his way through the changes. The follow-up “JT Blues” treads the same water at a more realized tempo and Rothbard’s Blues saturates solo takes a heavy nod in Grant Green’s direction in its use of repetitive phrasing. Gold brings up the track’s tail end with an easy, if conservative, exploration of the theme. Plectral agility and crisp stick work bluster the action on a briskly paced survey of Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” and its here where Rothbard begins to truly show himself as more than an assemblage of influences. Segueing smoothly though “Unstable,” an other original, the guitarist, dons convincing ballad guise and stretches out over a vaguely Latin rhythm spiced by unusual time signatures. Gold trades in lush rubato fills and Strasser keeps the groove percolating with splashing cymbal accents. Bacharach’s “Wives and Lovers,” no coincidently a favorite vehicle of Green’s gains a bright rendering as Rothbard pins of single notes with speed and alacrity and Strasser steps up for a rare, if reticent, solo. Two standard choices follow, one Swing-centered in Strayhorn’s “Flower is a Lovesome Thing,” the other representing post Bop preferences via a surprisingly leisurely stroll through Trane’s “26-2,” and then its time for a return to funk finale in the form of Rothbard’s “Going Somewhere.” It goes without saying that Rothbard and his colleges provide a consistently enjoyable body of music, and perhaps that’s enough.
Derek Taylor Cadence Magazine, June 2003 --top
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avi rothbard 2004 |
