Canadian jazz guitarist
Leitch continues to be a top player in this idiom as evidenced by his track record of fine recordings, this being another one. There are curiosities that pop up when
Leitch's sparsely treated, lean electric guitar sound melds with
Kendra Shank's mostly wordless vocalizing and the saxophone musings of
Bobby Watson.
Renee Rosnes plays piano on six of the ten cuts, while the bass of
Dwayne Burno and the poignant drumming of
Billy Hart anchor the varied combos.
Leitch wrote half of the material. "The (Sir Edmund) Hillary Step" is steeped in bop;
Shank's over-the-hump scat sets off a busy
Watson and Rosens, then
Shank and
Hart trade ideas. The lovely, light-bossa swinger "Johan Carolyn," running over ten and a half minutes, sports beauteous guitar and alto sax unison over the modal chords of
Rosnes as a vehicle for longer solos. The most gloriously constructed melody is extant during "K. Zee," which offers another unison line but darker, with
Shank's sultry voice added to
Watson's soprano and
Leitch's wide-eyed line.
Rosnes is more astounding on a choppy, chiming piano solo. "Wendy's Shoes" is a straight bluesy number scatted by
Shank and spiced by
Watson's fluent alto.
Leitch goes it solo on "Bud & Bird," all in a fast, bright, evenly keeled bebop language. The guitar/bass/drums trio do the Gershwin ballad "How Long Has This Been Going On?" while "Nothing Ever Changes for You My Love" uses the same instrumentation in a bossa-to-swing style. The session is bookended by two anomalous, nay, disappointing or perhaps questionable numbers. The
McCoy Tyner-written title track has
Leitch displaying a little twang, and the intro chorus has
Shank scatting only the first few bars of the melody twice, but all the way through at the end. The hip, charged bop of "From This Moment On" has
Shank only singing the name of the tune, but not the lyric, then scatting a bit. This is an interesting aside for
Leitch, not his best, but a change up of instrumentation and stance which is certainly unique for him, and, in many instances, welcome. ~ Michael G. Nastos