Fresh from the Cooler

The music within this CD — the fourth posthumous release featuring pianist Frank Hewitt — was actually part of Hewitt's very first session, a trio date recorded at Smalls without an audience. A solid bop stylist, he begins with a tantalizing, spacious arrangement of the infrequently heard ballad "I Waited for You," following it with a rollicking, choppy treatment of George Shearing's "Conception." Hewitt is clearly no slouch in uptempo settings, as demonstrated in his rapid-fire interpretation of "Cherokee." Sonny Rollins' blues "Tenor Madness" is an unusual choice for a piano trio session, but Hewitt's lively solo never runs short of ideas in this extended workout. Hewitt's dreamy performance of Horace Silver's "Peace" also merits high praise. Bassist Ari Roland and drummer Jimmy Lovelace provide terrific support to the pianist, who died in 2002, before any of his recordings for Smalls were released. This volume, which is to be followed by at least one more CD from this session, will be of great interest to those who didn't have a chance to see him in person but have discovered him belatedly through his recordings for Smalls.