Emerald Mile

Frolic and bassoon is not an overly used collocation, but it is an entirely appropriate one in the case of Paul Hanson, whose playing on the bassoon, surely the blackest sheep of jazz instruments, is exuberant, playful, energetic and joyous, and it has to be said quite breathtaking throughout Frolic in the Land of Plenty. Propelled by drummer Dennis Chambers, (who shares the drum stool with Paul Van Wageningen) "Emerald Mile" shifts through the gears and transports Hanson's bassoon-playing to a place where comparisons with violinist Jerry Goodman are not out of place at all.