Waking Dream

4 STARS

What greater satisfaction could a teacher have than to see his or her students achieve success—and in their chosen field, no less. On Waking Dream, renowned jazz guitarist and educator Randy Napoleon shares center stage with four fellow guitarists, all of whom are former students in his classes at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing.

The guitarists are part of a core group that includes three more MSU faculty members: pianist Rick Roe, bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Quincy Davis, while six of the album's 10 charming numbers were written by Michigan-born composer Gregg Hill. Napoleon wrote the other four and arranged all of them. The guitarists comprising the front line with Napoleon are Luke Sittard, Chris Minami, Jocelyn Gould and Ben Turner.

The ensemble welcomes a half dozen guest artists, three of whom are MSU colleagues: trumpeter Anthony Stanco, tenor saxophonist Walter Blanding and trombonist Michael Dease. The others are then-teenage bassist Langston Kitchen, drummer Michael J. Reed and guiro player Lynne Brown, each of whom adds color and variety to an otherwise guitar-heavy session. Kitchen and Reed sit in for Whitaker and Davis on Hill's buoyant "The Singer" and magnetic "52 Pickup."

Everyone (save Brown) has a chance to solo at least once, and no one is less than astute and well-spoken. Dease is especially captivating on the melodious "Riverside Blossoms," as is Blanding on Napoleon's emphatic closer, "Boom Boom." And even though Napoleon writes that he was "trying to keep up with these young virtuosos," he need not worry, as his solo turns are among the album's highlights (as on its lone ballad, Hill's seductive "Jo Jo Jo," which veers midstream into a lively swinger to undergird Sittard's powerful solo).

As a session wherein guitars lead the way, Waking Dream is well above the norm, thanks largely to the expertise and solidity of its principals, radiant charts by Hill and Napoleon, and the leader's unerring guidance and uncommon musical perception.