I read a review of this album in JazzTimes (hard copy edition), and I found it on eMusic for a cool six credits. AllAboutJazz has a nice review as well. Irby plays alto for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Ensemble. This is superb, swinging, hard bop.
The material consists of one original composition, named after Irby's wife Laura, and five bop classics: 'Bohemia After Dark' (Cannonball Adderley); 'Depth' (?); Countdown (John Coltrane); 'Four' (Miles Davis); and 'In Walked Bud' (Thelonious Monk). All of the treatments are inventive in the best sense: they honor the masters by demonstrating that each composition is an endlessly renewable source of genius. Everything on the recording is very fine. His treatment of Trane's 'Countdown' is astonishing.
The band includes Irby on alto sax; Nico Menci on piano; Marco Marzola on bass; and Darrel Green on drums. One ought also to credit the audience, which is very audible on the recording.
Since this is very new, I hesitate to offer a whole song. So here is a long excerpt from the first number. When it cuts off well short of the end, buy the darn thing. You'll be playing this one over and over.
Sherman Irby Quartet/Bohemia After Dark/Live at the Otto Club
I've heard him with the JLCO three or four times, and I love his playing (along with most, if not all, of the rest of the group). That guy's a beast on sax. I wish I had money to buy that album right now, but being a poor, jobless college student/musician limits buying things... Dave Holland was in town earlier this week with his quintet, but not having money, I missed out. Ah well...there's always YouTube...
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I just don't know what to make out of this track. The sax is great but the piano is almost unbearable.
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