Earlier, I reviewed an album by Ron Jackson called Flubby Dubby and had suggested that as good as the musicians were, each of the people in the group on that album could have been the leader and still would not change how good those songs were. The next album I played was one by Roni Music called Burning Music (Roni Music) and I thought “wow, the guitar work sounds a bit like the album I just played. I looked at the photo of the group and wondered “he looks a bit like the guy on the CD”. Well damn, they’re one and the same: the Roni in question is Ron Jackson.
This album is a bit different than Flubby Dubby in that it’s a bit more airy and due to the nature of some of the songs, a bit more tropical nature. It’s not light or “smooth jazz”, but the approach is not that of hard bop or boogaloo, but more along the lines of that ECM vibe of the mid to late 70’s. He is joined by Matsuura Hiroyuki on drums and Norbert Marius on bass, and together they play with their hearts on their sleeves. All but two tracks are originals, with “Killer Joe” and “So What” being interpreted incredibly well by these gentlemen.
There’s just some fine musicianship here, and I’d want to see them in a live setting if I didn’t live so far from a decent jazz venue.
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