Ramshackle Serenade

Description

Product Description This trio, Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart, is an unusual camaraderie of world-class players; as they play you can sense the deep respect they have for one another. Their intensely sensual music grooves and glistens. With the trio's extensive use of music's dynamic possibilities, the passion and joy of this amazingly versatile instrumental lineup is there for all to hear. Review Jimmy Smith was nothing if not a showboat. When he gave us an organ trio disc with guitar, he made sure there was a good share of Hammond B-3 screaming on it, not to mention at least one tune with a rhythmic groove that could hook anyone anytime anywhere (his version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" with Wes Montgomery will do for an eternal example). This is an organ-guitar-drum trio of a couple decades-plus duration that feels no need whatsoever to do such things. You can't even say that Larry Goldings is a jazz organist in the Larry Young tradition either. He's more like a jazz organist as Bill Evans might have imagined him - or, sometimes on this disc, the kind of Wes Montgomery disc he might have made if his organist Melvin Rhyne had had the kind of sensivity a post-Evans pianist might have had. Goldings, in other words, is a brilliantly enabling musician, which is why when this trio of longtime cohorts plays it's usually called the Larry Goldings Trio. But guitarist Peter Bernstein is a great guitar soloist, and the title here, "Ramshackle Serenade," is a superb indication of how modest - and, at the same time free and appealing - this organ trio is. It's a good bet that drummer Bill Stewart is finding his subtlety here as fulfilling as his work with Phil Woods if not more so. *** --Buffalo News, Jeff SimonThis trio is reminiscent of a great theater ensemble in which each actor contributes something essential to the scene, especially when he is not the focal point of the action. Bravo. --Bobby Reed, DownbeatWhen you bring a trio together like this, how could it be anything but great? There's a synergy here that makes listening to these gentlemen at work a real treat. --thejazzpage.com, July 11, 2014The organ trio in jazz has always been one of the more durable formats. Wild Bill Davis, Big John Patton, Shirley Scott, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Jimmy Smith and Larry Young have all led important trios each giving the music a little bit of themselves and pushing the music to its outer limits. To get the breadth of the jazz organ, compare Big John Patton's rollicking period piece Wild Bill Davis at Birdland (Columbia, 1955) and Tony Williams' seditious liberation of sound Emergency (Verve, 1969).So where is a middle ground? A great place to start would be Larry Goldings when he has teamed up with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. This trio has been an item for 20 years, recording for Verve and Palmetto as the Larry Goldings Trio in spite of the fact that they might be best thought of as three cooperative leaders. What colleague Dan Bilawsky calls "all for one and one for all with these guys," in his review of Ramshackle Serenade, I will extrapolate to an integrated balance between members.Golding's "Roach" is a blues that might be heard in a 22nd Century roadhouse, was such a thing to exist. It is not so much greasy as it is wholesomely decadent like dark chocolate in vodka. Of exceptional beauty is a lengthy reading of Jobim's "Luiza." Bernstein's plays slightly out-of-focus against Goldings' soft organ underpinning. Stewart plays light cymbals and toms in as an evenly shared piece as can be found on the disc. The song adopts a muted har --examiner.com, Carol Banks WeberThis is not just a good,solid jazz album by some very good veteran players -- there is greatness here. From the inspired covers like Jobim's "Luiza" and Horace Silver's "Peace", plus the standard "Sweet --examiner.com, Carol Banks WeberLarry Goldings has been one of the most talented representatives of the Larry Young school of post-bop organ playing... and he is in fine form on Ramshackle Serenade. --Jazz InsideRating: *****Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, and Bill Stewart play together in every sense of the word. They solo and interplay as one unit, from two decades' worth of integration. You can almost see their mutual enjoyment in the music. You will definitely feel it. --examiner.com, Carol Banks Weber