Swingin'

This inventive electric jazz guitarist has had the great fortune to release eight CDs on his own label, without any need to concern himself with corporate dictation or airplay necessities — and, in so doing, has been a huge hit on the Gavin radio charts. Freedom is what jazz is all about, and Elf's trio (which includes bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Winard Harper) epitomizes this on an album that generously lives up to its title. As always, Elf has a good time mixing playful originals (like the snappy, seductive "Indubitably," which gives Harper ample percussion solo time) and reworkings of classics by legends like Jerome Kern, John Coltrane, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers ("Manhattan" with Hart, "It Might as Well Be Spring" with Hammerstein). The swinging here is gentle and easy-strutting at the beginning of "I Can't Dance," but then heats up as the rhythm section picks up the pace; it's fun listening to Elf's warm, expressive tones try to keep up. Elf sets the zippy pace from the beginning of a brisk arrangement of Coltrane's "Lazy Bird," then settles back into medium tempo for the whimsical original "Gambinie's Bambinies," which finds his strings playing off Harper's cool hi-hat brushes. Elf's dynamic range of rhythm can be seen by contrasting the measured perfection of "Waltz for Wilke" with the highly percussive and improvisational "Blowins' for the Cohens." Elf sets the standard for what jazz should be — fun, unrestrained, and (at least the way we hear it from the audience) totally spontaneous.