John Donegan - The Irish Sextet: Shadows Linger

Shadows Linger is the seventh album from veteran Irish pianist John Donegan, whose dedication to jazz dates back to the '70s when he played on the scenes of his native Cork and later Dublin, before moving across the pond to England. While in Dublin, Donegan worked with the Irish legends guitarist Louis Stewart and drummer John Wadham as well as tenor saxophonist Dick Buckley, whose saxophone-playing sons Richie Buckley and Michael Buckley feature here in a potent front-line which also boasts trumpeter Linley Hamilton. Drummer John Daly and Dublin-based American bassist Dan Bodwell round out a sextet of considerable experience and talent.

These ten Donegan originals are grounded firmly in the bebop and hard bop traditions, so much so that several of the tunes—notably the hard-boppish "Raffy's Blues" and the handsome ballad "I Will tell You Once More (That I Love You)"—seem to have the feel of familiar classics. Donegan's slightly ragged yet joyfully flowing Bud Powell-inspired lines also hint at an older school language of early blues and stride pianists; think Cannonball Adderley's '60s combos at their rampant and soulful best, spiced with a healthy dose of nascent bebop, and you may begin to get the picture.

Beginning with the lively and exceptionally catchy "Shake it Up," the compositions follow a head-solos-head course, though the emotion and panache in the sextet's playing means that, despite the formula, the music never flags, even on slower fare such as the brushes-steered title track or the lovely, Thelonious Monk-esque ballad "Kit's Way." The front line is in outstanding form throughout, trading solo after top drawer solo, which makes picking out highlights somewhat superfluous. Donegan too, is in exuberant form, revelling in a number of tumbling solos, with shades of Wynton Kelly infusing his bluesiest forays.

Several tracks carry a Latin feel, particularly in Daly and Bodwell's tango-esque rhythms on "Sole Shuffle"—where the bassist basks briefly in the spotlight with a typically understated yet lyrical solo—and on "SNS (Saturday Night Samba)" with its jaunty, feel-good vibe. Daly, a key figure in the Limerick jazz scene for forty years, steals protagonism with a couple of meaty solos of his own but, for the most part, drives the music with tasteful gusto, in conjunction with the ever-sympathetic Bodwell.

Donegan and his sextet members do not set out to reinvent the wheel with Shadows Linger, which is just as well, because in sticking to what they know and love, they have delivered a memorable straight ahead album of vintage calibre.