Bob Dorough: Sunday At Iridium

Bob Dorough has had a long and varied career. He injected vocalese into "Yardbird Suite" in 1955, was musically associated with Blossom Dearie during that time, and wrote and directed the Schoolhouse Rock series in the seventies and into the middle of the next decade. He currently has a Sunday spot during brunch at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan, one date of which has found its way on to record.

Dorough is a fine entertainer. He pulls in pop, the blues, and some calypso, along with a healthy staple of jazz and a becoming sense of humour. A swinging band and an easy rapport with the audience go a long way in making Sunday At Iridium a success.

He gets off to a good start on the jazz song "You're the Dangerous Type," with fine articulation and an extended harmonic presence on the piano. From there on it is a roll. The blues vamp in, the guitar of Steve Berger slow and deliberate coloured with a light hue, the drums kissed with the brushes of Ed Ornowski, the beat pegged with precision by Steve Gilmore. There are some guest turns, most notably Daryl Sherman, who comes in for four-handed piano and a song on the Latin-tinged "Without Rhyme or Reason." The Bobettes accompany him on "Comin' Home Baby" to cook up fine pop, which they stir crisply with their backup vocals. There's fun in the sun on the breezy calypso "Down St. Thomas Way," and by the time Dorough gets through it all, the appetite has been well satiated.