There are two reasons why this excellent live album is titled
Sea Jam Blues. First, it was recorded aboard a "jazz cruise" in different parts of the Caribbean Sea in 1995. Second, one of the songs that
Urbie Green performs on this CD is
Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues." The veteran trombonist was 68 at the time, and he is in fine form on inspired, energetic performances of that standard as well as
John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," the
Gershwin brothers' "But Not for Me," and
Jerome Kern's "The Song Is You."
Green swings passionately on the up-tempo selections, but he shows how lyrical a ballad player he can be on "You're Changed" and "Old Folks." The trombonist also shows that he has no problem working with both younger and older musicians; on
Sea Jam Blues, he leads a cohesive quintet that includes two veteran improvisers (bassist Paul Rostock and drummer Glenn Davis) and two "Young Lions" (his piano-playing son
Jesse Green and saxman
Chris Potter, both of whom were in their twenties in 1995). Those who own most or all of
Potter's Concord Jazz releases know that he is a flexible wind player who can handle everything from alto sax to bass clarinet to flute, but he sticks to tenor and soprano sax on this disc. Although
Green is quite capable of playing swing and
Potter is quite capable of playing modal post-bop,
Sea Jam Blues is essentially a hard bop album -- so you can say that
Green and
Potter find some common ground and have a lot of fun doing it. Not all of the albums that
Green has provided over the years are great, but bop fans can't go wrong with
Sea Jam Blues. ~ Alex Henderson