Pianist
George Cables, who spent some of his formative years accompanying saxophone great
Dexter Gordon, pays tribute to the man with a nicely varied collection of tunes written by or associated with
Gordon,
A Letter to Dexter. His trio is filled out by fellow
Gordon alumni
Rufus Reid on bass and drummer
Victor Lewis, both of them now giants in their own right.
Cables has a decorous and romantic playing style, and combined with a rhythm section as mighty as this one, the results should be magnificent. And so they are, at least most of the time. Unfortunately, there are occasional moments when the rhythmic thread is lost and the groove falters. This usually happens during piano solos: listen carefully, for example, to the way the bass and drums wander off-groove during
Cables' first chorus on "Fried Bananas." But most of the album is a delight. The trio's take on the
Gordon composition "Cheesecake" is powerful and relentlessly swinging; "I Told You So," a
Cables original, has a wonderfully lilting Caribbean flavor, and
Cables' solo rendition of "'Round About Midnight" is another treat, an unusual and highly intelligent interpretation characterized by staccato phrasing and pleasingly
Monk-ish touches of dissonance. Also noteworthy is
Reid's gorgeous bass solo on "Polkadots and Moonbeams." Recommended.