Trading Icerbox

One doesn't recall Omar & the Howlers as a straight-out jump blues combo, but it looks as if they're on the bandwagon with this CD. Omar Dykes has a squirrelly voice that falls between sandpaper gruff and churlish shouting, a cross twixt Dr. John and Howlin' Wolf. Help from the capable Howlers, big-time backup from saxophonists David "Fathead" Newman and Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff and harmonica whiz Gary Primich on three cuts gives Omar, who also plays guitar throughout, all the support and inspiration he needs. As much as the band does predictably jump and swing hard on the majority of these cuts, there's always a surprise. Obvious choices like "Hit the Road Jack," "Just Like a Woman," and the hardest swinger "So Mean to Me" come naturally. Taj Mahal's loping "Going up to the Country" is one that fits Omar's range perfectly, and he really cops "the Wolf" on "Yellow Coat."

Since his emergence onto the New York scene in 1959, pianist Harold Mabern has become one of the few true living jazz stylists on the piano. Having played with everyone from Lionel Hampton to Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, and Lee Morgan, Mabern has the experience and the depth of knowledge sufficient to be called a master. There is no one on the scene who sounds like him, and his sense of lyricism, rhythm, time, and the entire range of dynamics in his playing attract other players as well as listeners. The Leading Man, issued in 1993, is considered a classic, both for its selection of material and the performances of the various ensembles Mabern assembled for the date…