Rick Hardeman is a talented if not particularly original swing clarinetist but a rather mediocre singer. Unfortunately he does sing on a number of the 18 selections included on his JazzMania CD, which lowers the quality of the music a bit. However there are enough swinging moments from his quartet (which also includes pianist
James Moore, bassist
Leonard Gaskin and drummer
Steve Little) on such tunes as "Struttin' with Some Barbeque," "You Can Depend on Me" and "Roses of Picardy" to make much of the music pleasing, but whose idea was it for
Hardeman to sing "What a Wonderful World"? ~ Scott Yanow