Back in the late Seventies, when I was studying for exams, I liked to play music as a background but found if I listened to my own albums I got easily distracted, so instead used to raid my dad’s jazz collection instead. That was where I first came across the mighty Jack Teagarden and his classic albums from the Fifties and fell in love with the trombone as the lead instrument within classic jazz, so I feel right at home with this release where Count Basie Orchestra trombonist Isrea Butler takes us on a wonderful ride.
He has taken as his major inspiration the wonderful Bennie Green, most notably his playing on Ike Quebec’s 1962 album ‘Easy Living’, with six of the seven songs being taken from that release with “Pennie’s From Heaven” coming from Bennie’s own 1959 release ‘Swings The Blues’. Fellow Basie bandmate, tenor saxophonist Doug Lawrence, whose conversations with Butler led to the birth of this recording, joins the trombonist on this CD, with an all-Nevada rhythm section consisting of pianist and UNLV Director of Jazz Studies Dave Loeb, bassist Steve Flora and veteran drummer Bob Chmel. This is Butler’s first record as a leader, although he has been on the scene for decades, not only as the lead trombonist with the Count Basie Orchestra—which won a Grammy for Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Basie Swings the Blues in 2023—and with Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Mingus Big Band, Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and the Jimmy Heath Orchestra.
This album is a delight from beginning to end, with all three lead musicians knowing when to drop in and out, allowing Isrea to often (but not always) be out in front, while Loeb somehow manages to just play chords here and there yet keeps the melody moving along while the rhythm section drives hard. This is classic old school jazz which is always guaranteed to leave a smile on the face of the listener, and one can only imagine the guys playing were having fun as well. Recorded in just one day towards the end of 2023, here we have five guys working through the scores just as would have happened back in the golden age, recording a set and then getting out, and it is all the better for it. Passionate, warm, this is classic jazz led by a trombonist who needs to do this more often as the major issue with this album is that at 41 minutes in length it is just too short.
Rating: 9/10
Links:
https://isreabutler.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Vegas.Records.LLC
