Carl Allen: Tippin'

Save for a pair of co-led albums with bassist Rodney Whitaker, it's been more than two decades since master drummer Carl Allen released an album under his own name. Rectifying the situation, he delivers this high-appeal, in-the-pocket trio program with bassist Christian McBride and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter.

When choosing the personnel for Tippin', McBride was the obvious bass choice from the beginning. There's tremendous shared history here—McBride appears on more of the drummer's recordings than any other bassist, and Allen occupies the throne in the low-end heavy's Inside Straight band—and these two sync up like few others. Working together with McBride and Potter on pianist Renee Rosnes' Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions, 2021), Allen heard the potential for the saxophonist to serve as the missing piece for this project. Then it was just a matter of getting things in place and putting a plan in motion.

Entering the studio in January of 2024 and eschewing any pre-production rehearsal for the sake of spontaneity, Allen. McBride and Potter laid down the entire album in a remarkably productive five hours. Together, across the entire program, they plumb the depths of possibility within a straight-ahead, chordless setting. "Parker's Mood" serves as an ease-in offering, comfortably calibrating the proceedings through laidback swing. Nodding to Freddie Hubbard and his influence, the trio turns up the heat for a driving, uninhibited take on the trumpet icon's "Happy Times." A pair of originals follows—McBride's "A Morning Story," ambling along in three, and the leader's blue-hued "Hidden Agenda," with Potter's bass clarinet working its inimitable magic—and James Williams' straight-time "Alter Ego," with another reed change (to soprano saxophone), serves as a winning tribute to that dearly departed pianist-composer.

At the album's center, Allen and friends pull from John Coltrane's bag to gambol through "The Inchworm" and drive hard down the middle on Lenny White's "L's Bop." Then Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist John Lee makes a guest appearance at the piano for Kenny Barron's "Song for Abdullah." A tender and tuneful vehicle that perfectly highlights Potter's measured melodizing and McBride's arco work, it proves to be a standout.

Allen original "Roy's Joy," swinging in praise of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and Pat Metheny's oft-covered "James," a favorite of drumming legend Roy Haynes, serve as tips of the hat to band mate and mentor, respectively. Beauty reigns supreme on Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful," a balladic slice of heaven in the penultimate slot. And the largely cool-headed swing of Charles Strouse's "Put On a Happy Face" sends everyone on their way. Forming and directing a trio with impeccable taste for this long overdue return to leading on record, Carl Allen comes up aces with Tippin'.

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