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| 5.961 Ft
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| 1. | Baku
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| 2. | Rambler
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| 3. | Super 80
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| 4. | Blues for Mr. T
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| 5. | Delphia
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| 6. | Inception
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| 7. | Poundcake
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| 8. | Isfahan
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| 9. | Highway 54
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Jazz
Recorded Direct to Two-Track January 10, 2003 at Tedesco Studios, Paramus, NJ. Jon Rosenberg, Tom Tedesco
Greg Skaff, guitar
Mike LeDonne, Hammond B3 organ
Joe Farnsworth, drums
With Ellington Boulevard, New York guitarist Greg Skaff stakes his claim on the rich territory of the organ trio. With his blues-drenched sensibility, rhythmic assuredness, strong affinity for funk and his boppish tendency of blowing at breakneck tempos with apparent ease, Skaff fits neatly into that great lineage of such stellar organ trio players as Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Pat Martino and Grant Green. By tapping into this nostalgic and inherently swinging idiom, which peaked in popularity during the '60s and early '70s when organ lounges could be found in every major market across America, he joins six-string contemporaries like Randy Johnston, John Hart, Dave Stryker, Paul Bollenback, Bob DeVos and Peter Bernstein in celebrating the power and glory of the vintage Hammond B-3 trio.
A current member of Bobby Watson's group, the Wichita native has worked frequently with singers Gloria Lynne and Ruth Brown and with trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard. But it was his five-year apprenticeship with the late Stanley Turrentine (to whom the track "Blues for Mr T" is dedicated) that made the biggest impact to date on Skaff. "I got the gig with Turrentine shortly after arriving in New York 20 years ago", he recalls, "and I never really understood until after I was with him how much the experience of being on the bandstand with him affected me. Just having to play the melodies and those horn lines with him really shaped my playing. There's a certain kind of swing that he has, a certain kind of pocket. And I haven't heard too many other people play like that."
Along with drummer Joe Farnsworth (a veteran of many B-3 engagements) and organist Mike LeDonne (a bona fide B-3 burner himself), Skaff sails through a collection of ballads, blues, burners and boogaloos with warm tone, pristine articulation, percussive attack and impressive chops. All three musicians are highly popular regulars at SMOKE Jazz Club, located on the corner Broadway and Duke Ellington Boulevard ( = 106th Street) in Manhattan - hence the title of this release. The album kicks off with a modernist take on the organ trio format in Skaff's "Baku", basically a head constructed over the changes to the standard "Yesterdays" in which the guitarist swings confidently while making odd intervallic leaps and surprising harmonic twists on his solo, a la Pat Martino. His loping, relaxed blues "Rambler" was inspired by Wes Montgomery's "Just Walkin'" (from his Bumpin' album) while Skaff's surging "Super 80" sails rapidly over "Giant Steps"-type changes, highlighting the guitarist's fluid facility up and down the fretboard. Le Donne responds to Skaff's burn with some heat of his own on a fleet-fingered B-3 solo.
"Blues for Mr T" is a toe-tapping, hand-clapping roadhouse shuffle which has Skaff digging deep into his own bluesy roots while flaunting his jazzy dexterity. LeDonne pulls out all the stops here (literally) during his own exuberant solo, which builds gradually and dramatically, culminating in a show-stopping crescendo.
Says the guitarist of his blues-inflected phrasing here, "Much of my background was in blues and blues-rock, which were both very popular in Wichita. I think the first jazz I heard live was Lou Donaldson. There was a club that brought organ groups like him and Jack McDuff out there. And that all made a strong impression on me too as a young guitarist." |
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