Robby Ameen: Live at the Poster Museum

Unlike some drummer-led albums, wherein it is hard to determine who is actually piloting the ship, there are no doubts about who is in charge on Live at the Poster Museum—and that would be none other than Robby Ameen whose sharp and forceful timekeeping enlivens the heart and soul of every number, lending them a sizable measure of their exuberance and swagger.

That is especially meaningful considering that Ameen is traveling in fast company, overseeing a burnished sextet whose members include saxophonists Bob Franceschini and Troy Roberts, trombonist Conrad Herwig, pianist Edsel Gomez (on Fender Rhodes) and bassist Lincoln Goines, each of whom is fully capable of leading an ensemble of his own, an assertion that most of them have already proven to be true. Besides drumming up a veritable storm, Ameen wrote and arranged six of the album's seven sturdy numbers, the exception being Sonny Rollins' brisk and powerful "Oleo."

As soloists are not named, it is difficult to determine when Franceschini or Roberts is holding forth, even though that is a minor detail, as each of them is splendid, as are Herwig, Gomez and Goines whenever they are given a green light. Through it all, Ameen's remarkable timekeeping lends a robust and unshakable backdrop, placing an indelible exclamation mark on every number. As for the music, much of it is brash and intense, befitting Ameen's temperament and skill-set. Nothing that would leave one humming a tune, yet nonetheless well-ordered and serviceable.

"Oleo," which surfaces midstream, is an unequivocal highlight, as Ameen gives the drum kit a vigorous workout to underscore dazzling solos by Franceschini (on soprano sax), Herwig (playing alone in its midsection), Roberts and, last but by no means least, Ameen himself. That nothing can equal that is not to demean anything else on the menu, simply to observe that "Oleo" boasts a few more musical calories and is therefore more appetizing than the album's other half-dozen entrees. As noted in its title, the album was recorded at the Poster Museum, which is precisely that—a repository of classic posters in Tribeca, NY. Ameen and his teammates give the audience more than its money's worth, an avowal with which many listeners to its recorded version may readily agree.