Label: John V. Brown
Personnel: John Brown, bass/Ray Codrington, trumpet/Brian Miller, sax/Gabe Evans, piano/Adonis Rose, drums
Genre: hard-bop
Recommended for: everyone, but especially fans of Art Blakey and hard-bop.

Bassist John Brown, a North Carolina native who directs the jazz program at Duke University, has played with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Elvin Jones and Cedar Walton.  So expectations were high for his quintet’s debut CD, “Terms of Art: A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.”

Those expectations are not only met, they’re exceeded.

Brown, clearly a hard-bopper at heart, pays tribute to Blakey – and by extension, hard-bop in general – with a CD of standards that represents the genre at its finest. Things get started with a blistering rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” highlighted by drummer Adonis Rose’s nimble stickwork and saxophonist Brian Miller’s rapid-fire soloing.

Things get even better with “Moaning,” a composition that practically defines hard-bop. Here, pianist Gabe Evans leads things off with his own swinging take on the Bobby Timmons classic, followed by trumpeter Ray Codrington’s relaxed yet intense solo work.

But the band also knows how to take things slow. On the Ray Brown number “Buhaina, Buhaina,” Evans again comes to the fore with a wonderfully restrained, even leisurely solo.  And lest we forget the leader, Brown follows Evans here with a soulful but not showy bit of playing.

Indeed, while Brown’s skill is evident, he never steals the focus from his very able bandmates. Like any good bandleader, he’s most content to let the music – and his fellow musicians – speak for themselves.  

-Tony Rogers

Buy it!