Jacob Chung: Live At Frankie's Jazz Club

Boss tenor Jacob Chung is back, performing Live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the reed master's second recording for Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group (following 2024's The Sage), this time leading a quartet rather than a quintet as he did on that earlier album.

Chung, who moved from Toronto to New York City to study with saxophonist Vincent Herring, his front- line partner on The Sage, learned his lessons well and puts them to good use here, blowing with power, ingenuity and assurance on every number. Although Herring and drummer Joe Farnsworth are absent this time around, pianist Tyler Henderson and bassist Caleb Tobochmann return, while the resourceful Hank Allen-Barfield replaces Farnsworth and keeps the rhythm burning.

The playlist numbers eight, the first half-dozen of which include handsome jazz compositions by Duke Pearson, George Shearing and Bud Powell; a couple of tasteful standards ("A Beautiful Friendship," Ray Noble's "The Touch of Your Lips") and the lesser-known but no less engaging ballad, "This Is No Laughing Matter." Henderson wrote the last two numbers, the high-stepping "Love Endures" and brief "Goodbye/The Architect." Chung steps aside and lets the trio display its charm and exuberance on "A Beautiful Friendship." Pearson wrote the sunny opener, "Jeannine," Shearing the well-grooved "She," Powell the chops-testing "Oblivion."

Henserson, Tobochmann and Barfield (who together comprise Henderson's working trio) solo often and well, keeping Chung alert and on his toes while making sure there is no decline in quality while he looks on. He needn't worry, as they are consistently impressive, individually and collectively—as is most everything else on Live at Frankie's, a superb sophomore pairing by Chung and his supporters at Cellar Music.

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