This excellent sampler features the
Zoot Sims
-influenced Danish saxophonist
Jesper Thilo
on previously released performances taken from five LPs recorded during 1980-1987.
Thilo
is heard in a quintet with fluegelhornist
Clark Terry
and pianist
Kenny Drew
(their version of
Ben Webster
's
"Did You Call Her Today"
is a delight), leading a quartet with
Drew
and drummer
Billy Hart
, jamming in a sextet with trumpeter
Harry "Sweets" Edison
, interacting with pianist
Roland Hanna
in a quartet, and co-leading a quintet with trombonist
Al Grey
. In each setting,
holds his own with the better-known Americans, jamming music that falls between
swing
and
bebop
.
Terry
,
Edison
, and
Grey
are all fun to hear as usual, since they not only
hard but are witty improvisers. It would be preferable to have the complete sessions and hopefully they will be reissued on CD eventually, but this sampler will suffice in the meantime, serving as an introduction to the playing of
. ~ Scott Yanow