COMPOSERS: Jimmy Cobb Quartet
LABELS: Chesky
ALBUM TITLE: Cobb's Corner
PERFORMER: Jimmy Cobb (drums), Roy Hargrove (trumpet & flugelhorn), Ronnie Matthews (piano), Peter Washington (bass)
CATALOGUE NO: SACD SACD327
If you confined your CD purchases to recordings featuring Cobb you’d still have a definitive collection of first-class mainstream-modern jazz: he’s worked with Adderley, Burrell, Coltrane and Davis, not to mention Montgomery, Vaughan and Washington (Dinah) and is going strong with his own band, Cobb’s Mob, at 78. By the time you read this you’ll have just missed his tour of Europe with Javon Jackson. Console yourself with this album. Cutting edge it ain’t, but from first to last it is replete with elegant improvising from four of the most accomplished neo-bop players on the scene. On a programme of less-familiar standards plus a Ronnie Mathews original, these four demonstrate how to hold the interest even when staying relaxed and within the rules. Chesky’s uncompressed sound is exemplary, using a single microphone so you feel as if you’re in the room with the band.
Barry Witherden