The International Jazz Quartet consists of two Americans (trumpeter
Duke Heitger and drummer Oliver Mewes) and two Europeans (multi-reed player
Engelbert Wrobel and pianist
Paolo Alderighi) who interpret music primarily from the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. The quartet digs into the music of
Jelly Roll Morton, including a trad jazz rendition of "Sidewalk Blues" and
Alderighi's playful solo piano interpretation of "King Porter Stomp." The band revives many of the pop hits of the '30s and '40s that have long been overlooked, among them an easygoing setting of "When Day Is Done" and
Pee Wee Russell's "Pee Wee's Blues," both featuring
Wrobel's lush clarinet.
Wrobel switches to tenor sax for
Ben Webster's riff tune "Woke Up Clipped," with
Heitger's sassy, muted horn providing a terrific second voice behind the tenor. The dreamy setting of "When You Wish Upon a Star" is a duo number for
Heitger and
Alderighi, their ESP-like playing makes it seem as if they've played together for decades. The quartet even enters the bop era with lively performances of
Jimmy Giuffre's "Four Brothers" and
Sir Charles Thompson's "Dynaflow." The group's playing never resorts to interpreting these works as museum pieces, but as valuable songs that still have a lot to say generations after they were first recorded by jazz musicians. ~ Ken Dryden