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New Stories: Speakin' Out
ByBesides investing their considerable talents to help ensure the trio's good fortune, Seales wrote "Blue" and "Highway Blues," Miller "The Jordy Strut," "Apparitions" and "Speakin' Out." The trio opens with Tony Crombie / Benny Green's melodious "So Near, So Far," brightens Herbie Hancock's decorous "I Have a Dream," reins in Pat Metheny's vigorous "In Her Family" (enchanting coda by Seales) and closes with the album's lone standard, "My One and Only Love." Watts plays tenor saxophone on "Blue," "Highway Blues" and "Speakin' Out," alto on "The Jordy Strut" and "Apparitions."
Seales, who has been one of the Northwest's keyboard luminaries for more than two decades and serves as professor of piano at the University of Washington, is superb throughout, as are Miller and Bishop, and the trio would be more than respectable even without Watts. He does, however, add vivacity and color to the proceedings, his wide-reaching concepts and prodigious technique on full display. He is, to use the vernacular, every inch a monster, whether on tenor or alto, and the trio benefits enormously from his unerring command of the music on offer. Having said that, it should be added that one of the album's more rewarding numbers is "My One and Only Love," on which Seales channels his inner Ahmad Jamal / Eddie Heywood to chaperon one of the more enticing versions of that oft-played theme in recent memory. A wonderful way to ring down the curtain.
Fans of trio jazz in general and Ernie Watts in particular should have no misgivings when it comes to Speakin' Out in praise of this remodeled album, which leaves no room for any assessment that is less than complimentary.
Track Listing
So Near, So Far; Blue; Highway Blues; I Have A Dream; The Jordy Strut; Apparitions; In Her Family; Speakin' Out; My One And Only Love.
Personnel
New Stories
band / ensemble / orchestraMarc Seales
pianoDoug Miller
bassJohn Bishop
drumsErnie Watts
saxophone, tenorAlbum information
Title: Speakin' Out | Year Released: 2000 | Record Label: Origin Records
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About New Stories
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
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Jack Bowers
Speakin' Out
ernie watts
Marc Seales
Doug Miller
John Bishop
Tony Crombie
Benny Green
Herbie Hancock
pat metheny
Ahmad Jamal
Eddie Heywood