Coffee Series servings...notes scribbled while listening to my CD collection as I enjoy my first cup of coffee...
MARCUS ROBERTS, Gershwin for Lovers, Columbia, 1994
This album - piano, bass, drums - is the penultimate classic jazz trio collaboration. Roberts interprets Gershwin as swing, a subtle rumba, and jazz infused ballads. He mixes it up with gorgeous lightly struck chords and arpeggios that nail the personal groove he stamps on Gershwin songs.
I’ve heard Gershwin 100 times. This is one of the most refreshing. Swing, sly Latin, a soft hint of blues, all three musicians in the same groove, point and counterpoint. Percussion soft sweet and definitive, the arrangements are inventive and totally in spirit with the Gershwin intent that can be performed buoyantly, or as a ballad, or soft or lazily swinging.
Roberts finds the groove between fresh and traditional. Upright bass of Robert Veal and fresh riffs by drummer Herlin Riley take off in flight that is always in the vapor trail of Marcus Roberts lead.
A Foggy Day
The Man I Love
Our Love Is Here To Stay
Summertime
Someone To Watch Over Me
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Nice Work If You Can Get It
They Can’t Take That Away From Me
How Long This Been Going On?
But Not For Me
Produced by Marcus Roberts
Executive Producer Dr. George Butler
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