Day and Night

Guitarist TOM RIZZO's NIGHT AND DAY [origin 82733] presents a combination of small band [Nick Lane-tbn/arr; John Dickson-fr hn; Bob Summers-tpt; Bob Sheppard-ts; Jeff Driskill-ss; Doug Tornquist-tuba] and quartet [Dennis Hamm-p, David Hughes-b, Steve Schaeffer-drm] groupings which goes down very smoothly. The horns are mainly used as coloring but the main focus/sense is a guitar-led quartet. Of the 11 tracks [57:44], 3 of them are Rizzo originals. The arrangements for the larger group are wonderful, especially on "Without A Song". On this Vincent Youmans' classic, the theme is introduced in an indirect manner and then opens up for some fine blowing. Rizzo plays with clean flowing lines with the quartet and that is where he is best. There is a bit of hard and soft jazz here, a recording with many dimensions and well done in each.