Key takeaways
Swoonsome standards from John Hart
A digressive dreamy quality is a big plus on this unusual new trio album.
If you are into the sound of Randy Napoleon or the enduring musical legacy of Vic Juris (1953-2019) then guitarist John Hart is for you stylistically a match.
Here in a drummer-less setting – it’s cornet and double bass in the instrumentation along with Hart.
It’s an album that begins with Bud Powell classic ‘Hallucination’ – also known via the prism of Miles Davis as ‘Budu’. That choice drops a big hint of not just a starting point but a certain end destination in mind that such an approach will reach via some very scenic period diversions.
You kind of expect dreamy ballads. And won’t be disappointed.
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Issued by the venerable Danish jazz indie SteepleChase – which has a similar vintage loving outlook to the Dutch Criss Cross Jazz and also the Danish label Storyville – the pearls that are ‘A Flower is a Lovesome Thing,’ The Scarlet Hour noir 1956 movie song ‘Never Let Me Go’ sung by Nat King Cole, ‘Be My Love’ and ‘I Thought About You’ land in safe but not at all complacent hands.
‘Be My Love’ seals the deal
The version of Nicolas Brodzsky’s The Toast of New Orleans movie song ‘Be My Love,’ a hit at the dawn of the 1950s for Mario Lanza (in the vocals version words are by Sammy Cahn) is our overall pick.
The song has been covered in recent years by saxophonist Walt Weiskopf and by long time Freddy Cole player Randy Napoleon back on 2016 on his album Soon.
But just as many people who love the song will defer to Keith Jarrett on his classic The Melody At Night, With You solo version issued at the end of the 1990s.
This new version isn’t as moving as that late-20th century classic – how could it be? – but it’s still very good indeed.
And not to be overawed by the sheer calibre of the song selections Love Is also includes a fine Hart original in ‘Lazy Thirds.’
But there’s nothing at all lazy here and cornetist Kirk Knuffke (known for his own records on SteepleChase including Cherryco as well as releases on the more avant-garde Cleanfeed and Relative Pitch outlets) is a suitably dreamy d’Artagnan to his fellow jazz musketeers all for one, one for all thought process.
Hart’s sensitive chordal imaginings
Recorded in December last year you may recall the last of this triumvirate bassist Carlo DeRosa for his role on the ex-Steve Coleman guitar star David Gilmore’s fine release for Criss Cross, Transitions, issued back in 2017.
All in all, a bit of a dreamboat of a record that will appeal to all the romantics among us most and a fillip for Hart’s profile. Who needs a drummer, eh?
Bunker down in deepest dreamsville for a heart to heart with this modern-mainstream record at your earliest convenience.
