Heading Home

4-STARS Wisconsin trumpeter, composer-arranger, educator and author Eric Jacobson and his team deliver Heading Home, his third album as leader. Offering eight Jacobson originals played by Chicago heavyweights and a New Yorker guest, all Jacobson regulars, the album, a hard bop retrospective, is arguably—if not definitively—the trumpeter's finest outing to date.

"Survival" opens in a speedball frenzy with trumpet and tenor, the classic hard bop front line configuration, stating the melody before saxophonist Geof Bradfield blisters off, soloing over modal changes. Jacobson follows with a well-developed ride, as does pianist Bruce Barth. The rhythm section earns its pay here with bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer George Fludas aggressively driving. Presenting a relaxed respite, "Three of a Kind," dedicated to the leader's three children, is a highly melodic and upbeat jump waltz with a memorable melodic line. Jacobson's solo slyly develops in restrained complexity over a three-note motif. Barth employs a similar approach, combining short and long lines with block chords. His surprises lurk around every corner. Fludas stretches out across his kit as things work to a close. "Manty Time" is a straight-ahead minor-keyed blues cooker. Jacobson, fully in control of both the creative and technical aspects of his playing, is deeply swinging and inventive. Bradfield, in synch with that same vibe, communicates with blues-laced lines.

Jacobson has distinguished himself in live performances at top clubs such as Small's in New York and the Green Mill in Chi-town, and over three albums, as a highly inventive deeply swinging performer and composer. His solos, which are intelligent, cogent and not overly intellectual, rarely offer recognizable patterned licks or repetitive "valve-wiggling." His inventive juices seem to never dry, developing from brief motific ideas which spew longer strings and rarely devolve into a preplanned pattern. He is like a jazz Goldilocks, a "just right" involving listen. Tenor man Bradfield is stylistically simpatico with Jacobson. With him, there are no overbearing or faux intellectual offers, just solid swinging sass. The rhythm section is deeply engaged and pocketed throughout.

Warm buttered tone is how best to describe Jacobson's gorgeous trumpeting on "My Love for Amy," a touching ballad he composed for his wife. There are shades reminiscent here of Blue Mitchell on "Portrait of Jenny." Jacobson validates that he can facilely cover the entire spectrum from ballad to burner. The track is about as lovely as it gets and its beauty teases replaying it. "Sunset Suite" is a driving samba with a line that melodically mashes Mitchell's "I Wish I Knew" with Claudio Roditi's take on "Speak Low." Barth offers a highlight solo, one of many he plays on the album. "Pause Time" is a funky blues that seems to emanate directly out of Rudy Van Gelder's 1960's studio. Jacobson covers with killer time and elasticity as lines run both short and longer and things develop into a straight-four groove. The rhythm section pockets along behind all. "Heading Home" is a hip boogaloo closing the session in great stylistic fashion.

Heading Home is filled with great music and ultimately, like a moebius strip, points back to a robust period in jazz where these cats feel very much at home.