Album track ‘Black Sea’ and other album tracks are streaming on YouTube
American multi-reedist and flautist Greg Abate is a familiar presence on the UK jazz circuit. Having seen him perform myself in the intimate basement of the Spice of Life pub in Soho, I can vouch for that tireless, close-quarters gruffly appealing energy he reliably pumps in.
On In The Moment, the flattened bluesiness timbrally of Abate, who is now 79, sticks closely to his preferred bop language, a style forged at Berklee and sharpened during tenures with the Ray Charles and Artie Shaw Big Bands in days of yore.
Stylistically, he sits squarely in the tradition of Charlie Parker and Phil Woods with whom he recorded wonderfully live at Chan’s. His chops aren’t sounding quite as strong as I remember them live but nevertheless he is still highly convincing and there is an authenticity to his approach which is compelling. If you could bottle this sheer instinct and knock it back in one you wouldn’t need to spend 3 years in music college as you’d be on your way as a player ready to pay your dues out on the road and wherever the jazz life might take you.
Flute wins
It is a personality at play: too many players while technically strong don’t project character. Abate does. Straightahead bop orthodoxy that favours blistering tempos, dense harmonic navigation and minimal compromise in his hands cannot be fake. Balm there is in abundance particularly in the jazz flute sections – ‘Kerry’s Song‘ does the business in that regard. It’s not a tribute to the kingdom – eg county Kerry – but instead his partner of the same name. Now you know! But the great Mingus biographer Brian Priestley on Radio Kerry might even play ‘Kerry’s Song’ on his Wednesday at 9pm show – knowing Brian’s taste a little he might well even like it. Serendipity, eh, perhaps. Certainly no fears of it being a Ron Burgundy-like skit. Because dammit it’s the best track and I didn’t even turn up for the flute and went here instead for the mighty alto sax playing that Abate reliably conjures.
This ten-track studio date follows a prolific leader discography stretching back to 1991’s Bop City – Live at Birdland, and more recent statements like Magic Dance (2021) and Positive Energy (2025). It functions as a collection of personal vignettes. Nine of the pieces are Abate originals, predominantly acting as melodic portraits of family. ‘The Little Men’ nods to his grown sons, ‘Angelic’ acts as a ballad for his daughter, and ‘CCA’ reharmonises a classic shuffle blues for his late father.
Musically, the quartet settles into a predictable but highly capable groove. Pianist Bill O’Connell – significant recently on Conrad Herwig’s The Latin Side of Chick Corea, an album of the week recently in these pages – who contributes the energetic, Wayne Shorter-adjacent ‘Black Sea’, above, – is a sharp foil, pushing Abate’s alto and soprano excursions into brighter spaces. The rest of the rhythm section of Harvie S who resists the temptation “to take the bass line for a walk” too much – god I’m quoting Anchorman yet again – and “keeping it splashy” Steve Johns provides the necessary momentum, keeping pieces like the driving ‘All Or Nothin” yes anchored.
- Greg plays Brighton College on 4 November.
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