Leading And Supportive Love

Known primarily as a sideman, veteran drummer Al Foster nevertheless has led a quartet since 1997, as noted by his bassist throughout, Douglas Weiss, in this album's annotations, playing "nearly 500 dates all around the world," or about 50 a year. In that time, Foster's group has been recorded only twice, at the outset by the German Laika label for the album Brandyn, and here, ten years later, by the Italian label Jazz Eyes. In the interim, the piano and saxophone positions have turned over, here occupied by Kevin Hays and Eli Degibri, respectively. But the musical approach has stayed the same. Foster's group is a mainstream jazz ensemble with a post-bop orientation in which his earlier associations as a sideman are evoked…

The biggest change for the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the relatively brief period covered by this CD is that on "Little Posey," Jimmy Blanton became the band's new bassist, taking over for Billy Taylor. While Taylor was a fine supportive player, Blanton was the first great soloist on his instrument and an innovative player who was a decade ahead of his time. This CD in Classics' extensive Duke Ellington chronological series, as usual, has all of the master takes from both Ellington's big band and the small groups led by his sidemen (trumpeter Cootie Williams and altoist Johnny Hodges), but skips over the valuable alternate takes. Among the most memorable selections are the spirited "I'm Checkin' Out, Goo'm Bye," "Black Beauty," "The Sergeant Was Shy," two versions of "Grievin'," "Little Posey," and "Tootin' Through the Roof" (which has a brief trumpet battle by Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart).