Ben Aronov has been on the jazz scene for quite a while, but has made few recordings as a leader, making this 1997 session long overdue. This well-crafted date displays his readily apparent imagination and chops. The mix of music comes from Broadway ("It's All Right With Me"), bop (Charlie Parker's "Air Conditioning"), Latin jazz ("Tin Tin Deo"), and even 1960s pop (Burt Bacharach's "A House Is Not a Home").
Ken Peplowski, who has featured
Aronov on a number of his Concord CDs, guests on several tracks, adding his matchless clarinet to the leader's lively original "Bye..." and his Hawkins-like tenor sax to "Nobody Else But Me." Bassist
Murray Wall and drummer
Tom Melito are also on the date. ~ Ken Dryden