Coming from a classical background, I tend to prefer duos of this ilk to lead instruments accompanied by the usual bass and drums rhythm section. It’s just as a pianist working unaccompanied instead of in the typical piano trio is forced to come up with more creativity and innovation in his performance. Hofmann and Wofford are husband and wife, and co-lead a quartet of their own as well as working with a string orchestra, but the duo format allows their technical virtuosities and creativity to blossom in a special way.
Phil Woods called Hofmann the best jazz flutist today along with Hubert Laws. She has recorded ten feature albums to date. She plays both C and alto flutes on the ten tracks here, which consist of some originals and rearrangements by Mike of several standards. The classical influence is enlarged further in his reworkings of the theme from Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Mike played with the Lighthouse All-Stars, was both Sarah Vaughan’s and Ella Fitzgserald’s pianist and music director, and has been house pianist at several San Diego jazz clubs.
Two early Monk compositions, Introspection and Eronel, are combined in a chamber-music-like setting for the lower-pitched alto flute and piano. (Wofford refers to her alto flute sound as “the Ben Webster of the flute.”) A very groovy takeoff on Joe Zawiniul’s Mercy, Mercy, Mercy is Glenn Cashman’s No Mercy.
Jazz flute seems to be having a resurgence lately and I couldn’t be more pleased about it. if you’re looking for something a bit lighter without resorting to the smooth jazz genre, Hofmann and Wofford are it!
TrackList: More Than You Know, Floof, Introspection/Eronel, No Mercy, Twelve, Free Day (for Samuel Barber), Out of this World, If I Should Lose You, Presentimiento, Exactly Like You.
– John Sunier
