Jazz for a Day in the Park, as released by Savoy Jazz in 2003, is a continuation of the popular Jazz For series released by 32 Jazz in the late '90s. Those discs contained songs from the catalog of the Muse label from the '70s, '80s, and '90s, and so does this disc. The 16 tracks are spread over two discs, and jazz giants like
Clifford Jordan,
Grant Green,
Phil Woods, and
Bobby Hutcherson all contribute tracks and brush shoulders with jazz middleweights like
Ralph Moore, the Drummonds, and
Freddy Cole. As the title suggests, the songs are sunny and the mood is swinging in a polite and sophisticated way. Although the songs date from well beyond jazz's peak years, the performances are uniformly solid and the disc is a nice low-priced collection of mood music. ~ Tim Sendra