Chris Flory: For You (2008)

Ken Dryden

Columnist since 2000

Ken has collected jazz for over three decades and been a jazz journalist since 1988.

Recent articles (222 total)

Published: May 15, 2009

Guitarist Chris Flory has predominately performed in bop and swing settings, having worked with Benny Goodman, Bob Wilber, Ruby Braff and Scott Hamilton. But though he has long had a love for blues, aside from appearing as a sideman on a date by Duke Robillard, he has had few opportunities to record extensively in the genre. So this session for Arbors is a bit different from his earlier CDs as a leader, though he doesn't just draw from soul jazz small groups with tenor organ and guitar for inspiration. The guitarist recruited organist Mike LeDonne, tenor saxophonist Dan Block, trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and drummer Chuck Riggs, playing blues-drenched takes of standards and a number of obscurities.

Count Basie, who enjoyed playing organ on occasion, penned "Swinging On a Daisy Chain," which Flory uses to feature Block in the lead with Kellso and LeDonne providing a pep section behind him. The breezy setting of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' "Bean-O" (written and named long before the popular over-the-counter medicine) also sizzles. Flory takes the lead in "The Lamp is Low" (a decades-old standard derived from a work by French Impressionist Maurice Ravel), producing a solid groove that would get any club audience patting their feet to the music. Flory's one original, "J H Blues," is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix but sounds little like the late rocker. Flory's fans will be surprised with this very different CD.

Track Listing: J H Blues; For You, For Me, Forever More; Swinging at The Daisy Chain; The Lamp Is Low; I Want a Little Girl; Three Little Words; Bean-O; Young and Foolish; A Beautiful Friendship; Vignette; Mister Goodbeat.

Personnel: Chris Flory: electric guitar; Mike LeDonne: organ; Dan Block: tenor sax; Jon-Erik Kellso: trumpet; Chuck Riggs: drums.

Record Label: Arbors Records
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream