Chance Hayden: Baritone Gold

Someone with a musical personality as bright as Chance Hayden's does not need much of a reason to throw a party. If past recordings are anything to go by, the fellow is already willing and eager to kick off a fun rocking jam session at the drop of a hat. This particular occasion was sparked by getting his hands on a baritone guitar and imagining how the instrument would probably have been used at its peak of popularity in the '60s. All it took (one presumes) was a few phone calls to some of the good friends he has collected through years of session work, and things came out as breezily as a summer-evening cookout.

Baritone Gold refers both to the glittery paint job on Hayden's guitar and the classic-gold milieu from which the crew draws their musical framework. The core trio has the leader bouncing against organ and drums while weaving the instrument's high-and low-end tones each into their own spaces. Clay Giberson's sprightly Hammond B-3 funks up the groove with some occasional noir grooves or juiced-up stabs. As nice as it is to have a few tracks with extra horns—not to mention two vocal numbers which serve as good-humored homages to Motown and Stax Records, respectively—things sound no less full or busy with just the core trio wailing and rocking away by themselves.

It can be amusing to play the spot-the-ingredients game: there is the Bo Diddley beat and the Chuck Berry boogie, perhaps some Joey DeFrancesco stomp here or Dick Dale echo-fuzz there. Without resorting to outright pastiche, though, the players play and stretch their familiar musical elements as naturally as tossing a football in a backyard game of catch. Several pieces can almost feel like old under-the-radar 45s that somehow were never heard before, but with production that is thoroughly modern and a cooking playfulness that is always timeless. The best nostalgia is the kind that does not simply stay in the past.