Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton: 'Round Midnight

Challenge Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: 'Round Midnight

We don’t hear true traditional jazz much these days. When bop came along, its influence changed almost everything: melodic lines, meter, chord structure and — most significantly — the way the instruments were played. But not everybody fell into the new ways. This album features a quintet of “traditionalists” who take us back to the pre-bop era, when swing was king. 

Surprise! These guys are younger than you might expect. Tenor sax player Harry Allen is in his mid-40s, while tenor cohort Scott Hamilton is in his 50s. Pianist Rossano Sportiello is just 40; bassist Joel Forbes is in his 50s; and drummer Chuck Riggs is the “elder statesman,” in his 60s. Hamilton is the best known of the group, probably because his early career included a stint with the Benny Goodman band. And while these five guys have played together for many years, they’ve also worked with today’s well-known musicians and vocalists.

Allen and Hamilton deliver some of the smoothest, most beautifully toned tenor sax you’ll ever hear ... and it’s hard to tell them apart at times. Their idols included the likes of Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz and Zoot Sims: four of the best at that instrument. 

The rhythm section also is a clone of the best who were heard during the Swing Era. You won’t be able to keep your feet from tapping, or your fingers from snapping.

The album menu matches that time period, as well. Most of the melodies will be familiar, and you’ll also know the lyrics: “My Melancholy Baby,” “Baubles, Bangles And Beads,” “Lover” and the album’s title tune, the lovely “ ’Round Midnight.” Everything is danceable: even less familiar jazz standards such as “Great Scott” and “Flight of the Foo Birds.”

This is great swing for at home, at a club, or in a dance hall. Whatever your generation, this music is a joy to experience.

Harry Allen: Rhythm on the River

Challenge Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Rhythm on the River


Readers of this blog know that my taste in music leans more toward modern genres — straight-ahead, bop, funk, etc. — than the earlier forms of traditional jazz. But that doesn’t mean the artists who produce the latter style aren’t good, or can’t deliver quite entertaining stuff. Such is the case with this album, headed by saxman Harry Allen.

Allen and his quintet members aren’t youngsters, but they aren’t that old, either; they range in age from the late 30s to the early 60s. Allen’s style is a combination of Scott Hamilton and Flip Phillips, with a pinch of Stan Getz’s “smoother than honey and cream” tone.

Warren Vache, who plays cornet here, evokes Roy Eldridge and Ruby Braff, while being much smoother than either, and a lot more innovative. Pianist Rossano Spontiello — regarded by Barry Harris as “the best stride pianist I’ve ever heard” — is light on the keys and extremely smooth. The rhythm section, consisting of bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Chuck Riggs, is as tasty as they get: solid, but never obtrusive.

This release contains a baker’s dozen of grand, traditional tunes, written by icons such as Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Burke, Richard Rogers and others of that time period. As the album title indicates, the operational word is “River”: “Cry Me a River,” “Rhythm on the River,” “Lazy River,” “Sleepy River” and many more. They’re all done superbly: an overused descriptor, but accurate in this case. The ballads are beautiful, and the more up-tempo melodies are just as danceable.

You’ll enjoy every selection on this wonderful album, along with the memories it’ll bring back.

Harry Allen: New York State of Mind

Challenge Records
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 4.1.10
Buy CD: New York State of Mind

The music world has tiers of excellence: musicians who, on the basis of their association with “name” artists or bands, receive continuous exposure to the public and achieve name-brand status themselves; and those who work more behind the scenes and, as a result, remain relatively unknown.

Many of the latter tend to work near where they live: some survive comfortably doing studio work; others play in local orchestras or groups; some teach; and many others have different day jobs and play on the side.

Tenor sax artist Harry Allen is one of the “relatively unknown.”

Allen was born in Washington, D.C., in 1966; he went to Rutger's University, in New Jersey, and currently lives and works in New York City. It's difficult to name an artist he hasn't worked with, and everybody is fully aware of his talent. Allen has more than 20 recordings to his name, and three of his CDs have won Japan's Gold Disc Awards.

The man can swing with the best.

This album contains 11 portraits of New York City, presented via familiar compositions that run from the roaring '20s through today; the track list begins with Irving Berlin's “Puttin' On The Ritz” and William Jerome's “Chinatown, My Chinatown,” and concludes with Billy Joel's “New York State of Mind,” along the way stopping at every other Big Apple-themed melody you can recall.

The resulting CD is a gem. Allen's sax is superb; his tone is lush perfection, and he's supported by an outstanding quartet of piano, bass, drums and trombone. This is traditional, straight-ahead jazz at its best: no bop, no funk, no hip-hop ... just wonderful swinging music.

Holiday Jazz 2001: ’Tis the season to swing

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.13.01

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene since the late 1990s, with lengthy columns that just keep growing.]


As the song goes, Christmas time is here.

Which means it’s also time for my annual survey of Christmas jazz releases, at one time an insignificant subgenre that has blossomed into a retail-driven growth industry (now true of Christmas music in general, rather than jazz in particular).

And, as always, quantity is no substitute for quality ... but I’ll happily admit that this year’s new releases outpace what I found in 2000.

That said, the first new release that hit my CD player this season also is one of the most disappointing: Making Spirits Bright (GRP 314 549 839-2), a compilation collection produced by Lee Ritenour and Bud Harner. Expectations were high, because GRP’s three-disc Christmas Collection set, released between 1988 and 1993, remains a standard by which holiday jazz compilations can be measured. Alas, Making Spirits Bright doesn’t belong in that company; somebody seems to have mistaken the GRP label for Windham Hill. Too many otherwise nice instrumentals are drowned out by chanting choruses, monotonous (and canned) percussion, gimmicky electronic sound effects and a veritable tsunami of strings.

Yes, you’ll find two genuinely nice tracks: Joe Sample’s solo piano rendition of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” and Diana Krall’s “Jingle Bells” ... but the latter already has been released on her own Christmas EP, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Every time another cut threatens to become pleasant — say, Marc Antoine’s guitar interpretation of “What Child Is This?” — it’s destroyed by overwrought background twaddle.

Making Spirits Bright should be fine for those who find Kenny G too challenging; despite this disc’s presence in the jazz bins, it’s anything but jazz.