Home At Last

You don't have to be from the Northwest to appreciate this Seattle legend. He played with Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker in the 40's and returned to recording in the 80's. Don had a buttery tone in that mellow zone somewhere between Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. The only other player who had this kind of sound was Bud Johnson - like melting amber, warm honey. Lanphere mixes master technical craftsmanship with the taste and wisdom of an elder: an elder who battled back from the depths of addiction and despair to the heights of spiritual faith. His mature heart turns every note into a firm word of guidance, ending in a whisper of love. In this set of mostly ballads, he is accompanied by Marc Seales on piano with his New Stories Trio: a Northwest group as fine as any trio in the country. Don died this year, and left us great music. This CD is, in my opinion, his all-around best and most accessible work. It should go right up there on your shelf of mainstream tenor quartets, along side of Dexter Gordon's 'Go,' Hank Mobley's 'Soul Station,' and John Coltrane's 'Ballads.'