(with The Gerald Wilson Orchestra; Hubert Laws, flute; Jeff Clayton, alto sax; Herman Riley, tenor sax; Joey DeFrancesco, B-3; Roberto Miranda, bass & congas; Clayton Cameron, drums)
Yoshi’s in Oakland is the top jazz room in the San Francisco Bay Area and it was the site of Burrell’s birthday bash last year. The club’s booker arranged for Laws and DeFrancesco to join the guitarist’s usual quintet for five nights, and on Burrell’s actual birthday Burrell was backed by the entire Gerald Wilson Orchestra at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. That’s my favorite currently-existing big band, so naturally this release caught my eye.
Burrell’s first album came out in 1956 and he’s recorded 100 albums as leader and many more as a sideman since. His style has influenced many other guitarists, including Wes Montgomery and Pat Metheny. His playing on this occasion with B-3 maven DeFrancesco brought back the memory of the guitarist having played on many of the classic Jimmy Smith albums for Blue Note and Verve. And Burrell was also part of the same CTI roster of jazz stars as Hubert Laws who were hired by Creed Taylor for his label.
And talk about birthdays, Gerald Wilson is 88 and still a vital bandleader/composer /arranger! He conducts his terrific swinging band with long white hair flying and arms churning. The disc opens with a bang as Wilson leads his hit Viva Tirado – one of several tunes he wrote inspired by bullfighter heroes. After a medley of Stormy Monday (during which Burrell contributes a vocal) and Blues for the Count we hear an extended version of Wilson’s lovely tune Romance. Then the band and Burrell do three Ellington tunes in a row before turning over the rest of the album to the expanded quintet. This is a joy of an album in every way.
TrackList: Viva Tirado, Stormy Monday/Blues for the Count, Romance, Love You Madly, Sophisticated Lady, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Footprints, Lament, All Blues, A Night in Tunisia, I’ll Close My Eyes, Take the A Train.
– John Henry
