Jim Snidero – Tippin’ – Savant

by | Nov 19, 2007 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Jim Snidero – Tippin’ – Savant SCD 2086, 52:03 ****:

(Jim Snidero, alto sax; Mike LeDonne, Hammond B-3 organ; Paul Bollenback, guitar; Tony Reedus, drums)

Jim Snidero paid his dues right out of college in 1981 as the sax player with Brother Jack McDuff’s touring Hammond B-3 band. Playing with McDuff honed Snidero’s blues and funk chops. After many years away from the Hammond scene, Snidero recently began playing on Mike LeDonne’s regular Hammond gig at Manhattan’s Smoke night club as a substitute for Eric Alexander when Eric was on the road.

The natural progression was to make a CD with LeDonne in a Hammond quartet format. With Joey DeFrancesco’s crack guitarist, Paul Bollenback, and ace drummer Tony Reedus along, Tippin’ is a return to Snidero’s early roots. There is no one more capable than Rudy Van Gelder to engineer, mix, and master a Hammond session – so Van Gelder handles these duties in his usual brilliant fashion.

Tippin’ is top notch from beginning to end. Made up of four Snidero originals, a LeDonne tribute to Hammond modal genius, Larry Young (Young Like), and several standards, Snidero would have made his mentor, McDuff, proud. Another hero of Snidero’s, the ageless Frank Wess, gets a lyrical tribute with Let’s Be Frank.

It’s been such a pleasure in the past several years to hear and review so many new Hammond B-3/saxophone sessions. It’s a great return to the 60s when these recordings were so prevalent and popular. Those 1960s albums are mainstays in today’s collections of Hammond fans. We are lucky to now have a new generation of Hammond and sax stars so as to begin round two of collecting these funky discs. You can add Tippin’ as a potential future classic of this genre.

TrackList: Tippin’, Let’s Be Frank, Young Like, The More I See You, Lover Man Oh Where Can You Be, You Stepped Out of a Dream, K2, Alone Together, Fried Oysters

– Jeff Krow

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