While perusing an online radio chart it came to my attention that nestled among all of the usual suspects and their respective releases was an album on the Origin subsidiary OA2 entitled Coming Home by a certain Lolly Allen. Her name was entirely new to me yet the said issue had attained the number four spot on the listing. After re-checking my "to review" it was discovered that very item was in my stack so here goes.
As far as can be ascertained this is Ms. Allen's debut outing and it is a fairly impressive one. The one thing I noticed right off was pianist and assistant producer Josh Nelson in the leadoff sentence of his liner notes failed
to mention Bobby Hutcherson in his list of vibraphone giants. Other than that small glitch this is flawless production with the two rhythm sections split effectively, guitarist Koonse on the two tracks with the three-piece
horn section. A pair of originals (Little Hummingbird & the title number) fit in snugly with writings from Dizzy, Johnny Mandel, Tadd Dameron, Horace Silver and others for an easy on the ears setlist. Solid bass anchoring and
intermittent reedwork from Jordan Richards & Danny Janklow respectively. To paraphrase the great Richard Pryor "This lady has potential!"