David Ake - Green Thumb (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

David Ake, in addition to having released several albums as a leader, pianist and composer, is also professor and chair of the Department of Musicology at the University of Miami, as well as an author whose books include Jazz Cultures and Jazz Matters: Sound, Place, and Time Since Bebop.

In early 2020, this busy artist and scholar wrote a number of compositions that he planned to record in spring of that year. Those plans had to be put on hold because of the pandemic, but Ake eventually got a chance to lay down the tracks. The result is 2023's Green Thumb, where the pianist is joined by saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston.

Three of the album's originals also appeared in different versions on Ake's 2022 release, Slingshot, which features solo and duo performances (with Kozlov) that were recorded around the same time as Green Thumb. The group's take on "Slingshot" feels looser than the solo rendition, and the foursome lends "Walker Evans"—a piece Ake played at his late father's memorial service—a grand cinematic sweep. "John Prine," which Ake wrote shortly after the singular singer-songwriter's death, comes off as more melancholic in the quartet's version.

Green Thumb features fine interpretations of two standards. Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are" is far from straight ahead. Ake has reharmonized the composition and the result is an intriguingly heady take on familiar material. The band swings in nicely elastic ways, and at times, there is a tense, abstract quality to the proceedings. All in all, it's an engrossing outing.

Jimmy Van Heusen's "But Beautiful" is a showcase for Malaby's wonderfully shaped and felt performance, which incorporates a judicious use of breathy tones. His playing throughout the cut is completely plugged in, bringing new life to an old song. It's a moving finale.

TRACKLIST

1. David Ake - Good Afternoon
2. David Ake - Green Thumb
3. David Ake - John Prine
4. David Ake - Stu's News
5. David Ake - Walker Evans
6. David Ake - Slingshot
7. David Ake - Kendee
8. David Ake - All The Things You Are
9. David Ake - Street Food
10. David Ake - But Beautiful



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