Rich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?

Veteran drummer Rich Thompson ushers a lithe and swinging quartet through its paces on his latest album, Who Do You Have to Know? (the answer to which, alas, is not forthcoming). This is basically late-night jazz, the kind often reserved for after-hours jam sessions whose participants are fully engaged in the task at hand and hold nothing back.

On this studio session, Thompson's able co-partners are guitarist Corey Christiansen, pianist/organist Bobby Floyd and bassist Peter Chwazik. As a unit, they glide easily through a program that consists of original compositions by Thompson and Christiansen, jazz themes by John Scofield, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" and Bob Thiele's "What a Wonderful World."

Thompson wrote the opener (and title song), an easygoing boogaloo on which Floyd plays organ, as he does on the next three numbers, as well as on Jobim's laid-back "Wave" and Montgomery's frisky closer, "Fried Pies." Christiansen authored the shuffling "Street Cred" and even-tempered "With You," on which he plays piano, also his instrument of choice on "What a Wonderful World" and "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing." As a timekeeper, Thompson's main task is to keep everyone on the same page and pushing steadily forward, which he does quite well, soloing (also quite well) only on "Fried Pies."

Even so, the impromptu assignments are in capable hands, as Floyd, Christiansen and Chwazik are never less than commendable. Floyd is superb on piano or organ, and stretches radiantly on piano on "Lovesome Thing," while Christiansen is smooth and steady on every number. Floyd's organ solo on Rollins' "Why Don't I," the only theme that merits the label burner, is especially nimble and pleasing. A better-than-average quartet session whose even-tempered design could have been further enhanced by an occasional infusion of up-tempo energy and heat.

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