So Far from Home

This second album by the Washington, D.C.-area quintet with the ungainly name of the Shook-Russo Quartet featuring Greg Gisbert is a well-performed, straight-ahead bebop jazz effort of a sort that could have been heard any time since the mid-'40s, though its primary locus would be, say, 1955. In the tunes, all originals written by either bassist Amy Shook or saxophonist Pat Shook, a "head" theme played in unison by Pat Shook and Gisbert gives way to solos, usually first by Pat Shook and then by Gisbert, with the other bandmembers getting their say on one tune or another. All of the players are schooled in the tradition of this style of music, once so revolutionary, now so predictable. Familiar in overall style as it may be, however, there are surprises in the individual playing, particularly in the rhythm section of drummer Frank Russo, a chameleon who can sound like many other drummers, and Amy Shook, whose sense of organization is not surprising, since she wrote more than half the material. The group may be more impressive live, where comparisons to classic quintets of the same sort, led by Dizzy Gillespie or Miles Davis, do not apply. But the players honor tradition on disc.