John Alvey: Loft Glow

Such is the proliferation of albums which in the 2020s are taking jazz in new and exciting directions—see AAJ's Best Jazz Albums of 2024: All-Star Break Edition round-up here—that it is easy to pass over albums which have their feet firmly planted in the tradition, and which show no ambition to redefine it, but which are by any standards fresh and first-class jazz. Such an album is Nashville-based drummer John Alvey's debut, Loft Glow.

On this love letter to hard bop, Alvey's co-signatories are fellow Music City players trombonist Roland Barber, alto saxophonist Jovan Quallo, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, pianist Matt Endahl and bassist Jacob Jezioro. Three of the six tracks are by the sextet, the other three by a quintet in which one or other of the saxophonists lays out.

Like, one suspects, more than a few members of the AAJ community, one of Alvey's early inspirations was Art Blakey's Moanin' (Blue Note, 1958). But it was not Blakey so much as tenor saxophonist Benny Golson who rang Alvey's bell—and it is Golson's sophisticated take on hard bop with The Jazztet, on albums such as The Jazztet At Birdhouse (Argo, 1961), which Loft Glow so successfully emulates.

Golson's "Terminal 1" is one of three covers on Loft Glow. The others are John Stubblefield's noirish "Baby Man" and Ron Carter's "Blues For D.P." (a tribute to Blue Note arranger/producer Duke Pearson). The other three tracks are inhouse originals: Alvey's "Azure," Quallo's "June 23" and Barber's crepuscular waltz "Winslow Nocturne."

All three originals are solid, and Barber's "Winslow Nocturne" is strong enough to become a latter-day hard bop standard. Instrumentally, too, Barber is a stellar presence on the album with his visceral, at times straight down the line gutbucket solos. Check his use of the plunger mute on "Baby Man." Barber also brings to the album connections with Blakey's Jazz Messengers and The Jazztet through trombonist Curtis Fuller, with whom he studied. Arrangements are by Alvey, Barber and Quallo, together and separately.

Second albums are often said to be particularly difficult to pull off, and Alvey has set himself a high bar with Loft Glow. But with a lineup as all-round talented—and on message—as this, he has every chance of succeeding.