Largely straightahead fare
Here the US drummer Steve Johns is in a vibes, guitar, piano, bass stocked small group.
He swings agreeably enough on opener, ‘Coming of Age.’
It’s his original while the next tune – another Johns original – has some pleasingly heart-on-sleeve vibes soloing from Monte Croft on ‘Sapphire.’
Far more complex is the up tempo race sketched out by Croft and John Hart on guitarist Hart’s tune ‘This is the Thing.’
Make Me Rainbows and Compared to What are the vocals numbers
Croft’s vocal on 60s John Williams & the Bergmans’ ‘Make Me Rainbows’ certainly appeals if like us you are a Mark Murphy fan as Croft’s approach is very much in that style. Murph covered the song on his album This Must Be Earth (1969, Phoenix).
Teepe – tip top
We’re also new converts to the sound of the bassist Joris Teepe here who was on the PX Records release with Don Braden At Pizza Express Live – in London back in the autumn and whom we heard play a gem of a lunchtime gig with trombone deity Conrad Herwig also last year.
Teepe is unobtrusive at times but listen hard and you can detect the subtle ways he moves the beat along. The left-handed Dutchman is great at injecting a lot of pace into his walking or as often as not trotting lines when needed. Johns too incidentally has worked with the aforementioned Herwig who was in the personnel on Johns’ album with saxist Peter Brainin entitled No Saints No Sinners released two decades ago
Teepe contributes the agreably knotty tune ‘Our Time’ the descending piano line from Greg Murphy of which reminds me a little of some of the chordal set-up in the Cy Coleman standard ‘I’ve Got Your Number.’
President he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treasonGene McDaniels – ‘Compared to What’
Later Teepe ballad ‘In My Humble Opinion’ is also a welcome presence and Croft’s hearty solo of an old original lands in a welcome Steve Nelson-like space, Nelson being the vibes great with whom Teepe has also recorded.
Johns, 64, hails from Boston, was taught by the great Alan Dawson and among many notable career landmarks was in the trio of the deeply revered Dr Billy Taylor. The video above of the trio playing ‘Titoro’ will – wild guess – make your day. Johns’ essential style compares well to another great technical master – John Riley, of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
‘Bluesday the 13th’ proves a gem
Greg Murphy tune ‘Bluesday the 13th’ allows Johns a bit more space to show his considerable technical skill and this vibrant tune is one of the album’s strongest suits. The album takes a funky turn with a version of Gene McDaniels’ ‘Compared to What’ which has a very different vocal from Croft and there’s some attractive harmonica soloing from him too.
Johns tune ‘Friday the 16th’ is avant-garde and something of a surprise in context – while it sticks out like a sore thumb it stops the album being too comfortable.
Normal service given the album’s abiding straightahead inclinations is resumed on the laidback ‘River’s Edge’ and the album is completed by the title track ‘Mythology’ where Teepe’s solo is certainly worth the wait.
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