With Benny In Mind

In a testimonial printed on the back of the CD case, Bill Hyland (executor of the Benny Goodman estate) observes that this album looks both "backward and forward in a stylistic sense." That's baloney. This album looks resolutely and unapologetically backward in a stylistic sense, straight back to the 1930s, when Benny Goodman was making his hugely influential small-ensemble recordings. And it does so beautifully, with a clarity and grace that sometimes seem to have gone entirely missing in jazz since Goodman's death. "Grace" should not be confused with "wimpiness," of course, and on this wonderful sextet date clarinetist Allan Vaché leads a group that includes some of the hottest swing players currently in the business, among them pianist John Sheridan, drummer Ed Metz, Jr. and a young vibraphonist named Christian Tamburr — remember that name. The program is completely unsurprising and includes just about all the usual suspects: "Flyin' Home," "Body and Soul," "Airmail Special," even "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise." But when Sheridan kicks in the stride technique on "Air Mail Special" or Tamburr digs in deep on "Flyin' Home," it will be as if you're hearing these hoary old classics for the first time. Well, maybe for the second time.