Jay Leonhart: Galaxies and Planets

Master bassist Jay Leonhart has chosen a program of his own songs to fill an album dedicated to the memory of Milt Hinton. The material is the type one associates with Murk Murphy, Dave Frishberg and Bob Dorough, hip, often funny and kind of folksy. It's as if Leonhart was sitting across from you recounting some of his life events. Nothing very heavy, things like trying to get his bass on a plane "Bass Aboard a Plane" or being held up in Customs just because he is trying to bring in "...two alligators...six or seven ostrich eggs...and a little baby Llama from the mountains of Tibet" or the embarrassment of Dizzy Gillespie's failure to recognize Leonhart every time he sees him, even though they played together many times. Interesting and funny, but nothing you'd especially care to hear more than once. Leonhart hums and bows simultaneously a la Slam Stewart and Major Holley on "Endless Nights". His tribute to Milt Hinton, "The Judge", is neither maudlin nor mournful, but celebrating kindnesses Hinton and his wife showed to a young bassist named Jay Leonhart when he arrived lonely and apprehensive in the Big Apple. The music is more interesting when pianist Ted Rosenthal is present (7 tracks) and Michael Leonhart shows up with his trumpet (3 tracks). But even with them on board, you get the feeling that you've heard this song before, or something very like it. The tempo and phrasing rarely change and while the lyrics are clever, they aren't enough to sustain almost 55 minutes of music. The lyrics are in the liner notes.

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