Open Heart

Pianist/composer/teacher Randy Halberstadt offers his sixth release as a leader. He composed six of the nine songs on offer and each cover was written by Frederic Chopin, George Gershwin or Henry Mancini. The backing musicians include Chuck Deardorf (bass), Adam Kessler (drums), Ben Thomas (vibes), Jay Thomas (trumpet, flugelhorn, soprano sax), Mark Taylor (alto sax) and David Marriott, Jr (trombone). The music flows and is beautifully rhythmic. There are occasional style shifts and they truly add variety, especially with the shift in instrumentation, dropping the horns, for instance. This is good solid jazz regardless of the instrumentation. Wonderful style and flow!