Terrible

The pianist for NRBQ has long had jazz chops, as well as ideas to express, apart from his working band. On this CD, there are a variety of different instrumental ideas on tracks featuring fellow NRBQ-ers the Spampinato brothers -- Johnny on guitar and Joey on electric bass guitar -- and drummer Tom Ardolino. Bobby Previte plays the drum kit on four of the selections and Roswell Rudd is on trombone for two, while Sun Ra hornmen Marshall Allen (alto sax), Tyrone Hill (trombone), and Dave Gordon (trumpet) perform on six tracks. Because the personnel of each cut is different (all written by Adams), it allows him to explore the various facets of his lengthy music career. He expresses broad-based ideas, all competently played, from deep introspection to swing to modern mainstream themes, and his happy, uplifting sound, while not dominant, is nonetheless ever-present. Of the pieces with his NRBQ-mates, "Le Sony'r" is a processional tango with tinkling piano, fanfare horns, and Allen's tart alto. The swing stomper "Out the Windo," for the late Gary Windo, again features Allen's ribald-flavored musings. Adams goes midnight blue on "I Feel Lucky" with dual brass from Hill and Dave Gordon following a guitar-piano unison theme, and the minimalist funk of "These Blues" compares that feeling to several things: a "fly buzzin," an "onion that makes you cry but you eat it anyway," an uncooperative elevator, and a "radio, loud, and always on/you can call the request line, but they ain't gonna play your song." Throughout the songs, Jim Gordon's harmonica agrees with those sentiments. Adams includes some beautiful ballads, updating the old NRBQ number "Yes, Yes, Yes," and putting Hill on the lead trombone line for "Thinking of You." But the leader is best when he writes a witty, active, hip horn chart in a post-bop mode as on "Say When" or camping up a circus-like "Toodlehead," which includes Japanese organ grafted on a goofy Raymond Scott type head, Rudd's brash solo, and Jim Hoke's Bechet-like soprano sax. Adams plays harmonica with three flutes, two muted trombones and two basses for the program's highlight, the oriental-sounding "Little One," and features Rudd prominently on the calypso rhythmed "Hilda," a high point for Rudd's world-class solo dexterity. There's also some straight swinging as on "dog," Hoke again digging in with Adams comping through the changes, as well as a mbira-clavier duo from Adams on "Distant Instant." Twelve short tunes comprise this excellent CD, and there's not a speck of filler. Obviously, Adams was overdue (and a follow-up is a must), but this extraordinarily musical disc will be hard to top. Highly recommended. ~ Michael G. Nastos