eMusic Review 0
One good thing about jazz is that it can be made persuasively without reinventing the wheel. There’s plenty of space at the outer reaches, but great value can still be found from music that stays in the tradition, assuming it’s coming from players who are thoroughly versed in jazz lineage and who are resourceful enough to not be merely copying what they’ve heard. Pianist Bruce Barth is one of these musicians, and his album Live at the Village Vanguard is a prime example of how someone who has learned from his elders can take acquired information and make it entirely fresh. Intimately recorded, Barth’s tone sounds lush and warmly mid-register, bassist Ugonna Okegwo is big-toned and responsive, and the redoubtable Al Foster is as sympathetically on the case as ever. The repertoire is a mix of particularly fine standards, some Monk and a few originals. Nicely paced throughout, everything sounds good, from the energetic opener, “Little Dirty,” through to the finale, a respectful and moving reading of Harold Arlen’s incomparable “When the Sun Comes Out.” Barth is a confident player, but not a showy one; he knows enough to understand that the best way to assay a composer like Arlen… read more »
