White And Griffith

This unique straight-ahead jazz project unites three core members of Return to Forever with post-bop horn heavyweights Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson. Stanley Clarke makes an unusual appearance on upright bass, and plays it well. Chick Corea and Lenny White round out the ensemble. The set is strictly acoustic, beginning and ending with two Lenny White tunes, the lively "L's Bop" and the somber, dramatic "Guernica," respectively. Clarke contributes the catchy, mid-tempo blues "Why Wait," while Corea gives us "October Ballade" and Hubbard dusts off his hard-bop classic "Happy Times." Corea's trio featured on Steve Swallow's "Remember" breaks things up nicely.

The first four tracks on this double live record are extended version of tunes from the group's 1982 studio album. The last two are Thelonius Monk's "I Mean You" and the standard "Here's That Rainy Day." There's some great playing from all involved, especially Joe Henderson and Chick Corea, but the recording quality leaves something to be desired.

Deep Cuts is Tony Joe White's 21st album, and after 40 some years of delivering a delightfully skewed, greasy, swamp-soaked Louisiana pop view to the world, it's amazing that more people don't know about this guy. Oh, he's well known and respected in some quarters, and his hit "Polk Salad Annie" from 1969 bubbles up from time to time on the oldies stations, but White has pretty much spent his whole career flying just beneath the commercial radar. It would be nice to say that this album, which updates White's sound with beats and loops provided by his son Jody White, will change all that, but the truth is, it won't. White's baritone voice, while still effective in spots, is a ragged, hoarse shell of its former self and nothing included in this set is going to bring the world to his doorstep…..