A Ride to the Other Side..

Trumpeter Derrick Gardner is clearly fond of the hard bop sound of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and that style is somewhat modernized on this set of original mainstream jazz. Sporting a three-horn front line including his brother, trombonist Vincent Gardner, the band utilizes a resilient, sturdy swing, and exudes the joy of Blakey's latter period bands that featured such notables as Bobby Watson and David Schnitter, Terence Blanchard and Donald Harrison, and the Marsalis brothers. Rising tenor saxophonist Rob Dixon, pianist Anthony Wonsey, bassist and fellow M.S.U. Professor of Jazz Rodney Whitaker, and drummer Donald Edwards round out a stellar young but experienced large ensemble. At their hippest "Funky Straight" opens the recording, sporting a Horace Silver Latin tinge, while more in the Afro-Cuban vein, "Lazara" is a party tune with the jumping horns brimming with hot sauce and urged on by seventh wheel, hand percussionist Kevin Kaiser. Also spicy but in a traipsing samba mode, a drum solo by Edwards provides ignition for "Bugabug," featuring the brothers Gardner individually on the lead line and solo respectively. Two compositions are inspired from ideas imparted to Derrick Gardner by Frank Foster — the pure, festive hard swing of "A Ride to the Other Side," while "Bugabug" is the other, based on a big-band chart of Foster's. Wonsey's feature "God's Gift" is the modal, patient, and prettiest of the tracks, while a cover of Bill Lee's ballad "Be One" shows the individualism of the trumpeter succinctly. The band collectively likes the distinctive stop-start staccato accents that Wynton Marsalis turned into a signature, as on the low-key dynamic shuffle "Mac Daddy Grip" and during the pace of the ballad "Just a Touch," established subtly by Wonsey and Whitaker. There's no filler on this CD, from the start to the finishing number "Of Infinity," a memorable chart that could be the best of the bunch. Some Blue Note label fans may find this a trifle derivative, but that's a nit-pick. The music is exciting, enthusiastic, consistently well played by everyone, and above all, real. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi