Decade

Trombonist Clifton Anderson has spent the better part of three decades as the main foil and generally the only other horn player in the band of his uncle, Sonny Rollins. With good reason, Rollins has kept Anderson around for his musicality, fluid tone, happy sound, and clear compatibility with the saxophone colossus. This is Anderson's second effort as a leader, working alongside some heavy-duty players like his sidekick in the Rollins band, bassist Bob Cranshaw. The brilliant pianist Larry Willis and drummer Al Foster join in, while pianist Stephen Scott, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Steve Jordan — all onetime members of the Rollins aggregation — are included on select tracks. Alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and young tenor man Eric Wyatt (the godson of Sonny Rollins) get two cameos apiece. The music is as you'd expect in the straight-ahead modern mainstream idiom, with few frills, embellishments, or diversions. It is a program of two-thirds originals from the leader, one-third standards, and one cover of the David Gates pop tune "If." Anderson himself is positively inspired, playing ultimately clean, brash, sophisticated lines of melody that are simple, thoughtful, and profound. Of Anderson's originals, "Noble" — for WABC-TV producer Gil Noble — is the brightest, most lyrical, and happiest, but it could have easily been written for Rollins, while "Deja-Blu" is charted in the style of Rollins within a 12-bar blues framework with the trombonist piling on the harmonic content, and "Aah Soon Come" is a sunny calypso similar to the Rollins evergreen "St. Thomas." Anderson goes off a bit alongside Garrett's pithy alto during "Z" as they trade phrases, while the most enjoyable "Stubbs" (originally to be recorded with John Stubblefield before he passed away) starts peacefully, then rips into a fierce hard bop discourse similar to Garrett stylistically. Of the standards, "I'm Old Fashioned" has Anderson's trombone muted, playing quick, fluid, and clean bop, while the band settles down for the ballad "We'll Be Together Again" as Anderson's flurry of clipped notes runs polar to the slow beat, and the steady, mysterious caravan elements of "I'm Glad There Is You" is a unique treatment, with Foster's Nile-flavored drumming over 11 minutes keeping the journey sashaying ever onward. Foster and Willis are particularly notable on this session — grand masters who still have a lot to offer after having struggled through well-documented personal trials and tribulations, putting their blues aside to make splendid modern jazz. Decade is just degrees away from a triumph, if not one of the better trombone-led jazz entries in the 2000s. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi