Trombonist
Clifton Anderson has spent the better part of three decades as the main foil and generally the only other horn player in the band of his uncle,
Sonny Rollins. With good reason,
Rollins has kept
Anderson around for his musicality, fluid tone, happy sound, and clear compatibility with the saxophone colossus. This is
Anderson's second effort as a leader, working alongside some heavy-duty players like his sidekick in the
Rollins band, bassist
Bob Cranshaw. The brilliant pianist
Larry Willis and drummer
Al Foster join in, while pianist
Stephen Scott, bassist
Christian McBride, and drummer
Steve Jordan -- all onetime members of the
Rollins aggregation -- are included on select tracks. Alto saxophonist
Kenny Garrett and young tenor man
Eric Wyatt (the godson of
Sonny Rollins) get two cameos apiece. The music is as you'd expect in the straight-ahead modern mainstream idiom, with few frills, embellishments, or diversions. It is a program of two-thirds originals from the leader, one-third standards, and one cover of the
David Gates pop tune "If."
Anderson himself is positively inspired, playing ultimately clean, brash, sophisticated lines of melody that are simple, thoughtful, and profound. Of
Anderson's originals, "Noble" -- for WABC-TV producer Gil Noble -- is the brightest, most lyrical, and happiest, but it could have easily been written for
Rollins, while "Deja-Blu" is charted in the style of
Rollins within a 12-bar blues framework with the trombonist piling on the harmonic content, and "Aah Soon Come" is a sunny calypso similar to the
Rollins evergreen "St. Thomas."
Anderson goes off a bit alongside
Garrett's pithy alto during "Z" as they trade phrases, while the most enjoyable "Stubbs" (originally to be recorded with
John Stubblefield before he passed away) starts peacefully, then rips into a fierce hard bop discourse similar to
Garrett stylistically. Of the standards, "I'm Old Fashioned" has
Anderson's trombone muted, playing quick, fluid, and clean bop, while the band settles down for the ballad "We'll Be Together Again" as
Anderson's flurry of clipped notes runs polar to the slow beat, and the steady, mysterious caravan elements of "I'm Glad There Is You" is a unique treatment, with
Foster's Nile-flavored drumming over 11 minutes keeping the journey sashaying ever onward.
Foster and
Willis are particularly notable on this session -- grand masters who still have a lot to offer after having struggled through well-documented personal trials and tribulations, putting their blues aside to make splendid modern jazz.
Decade is just degrees away from a triumph, if not one of the better trombone-led jazz entries in the 2000s. ~ Michael G. Nastos