My Shining Hour

I always love receiving a Bobby Broom CD for review, he is such a good improviser. He has two working trios, his organ trio and this one which was formed in 1991. This album Lerner and Loewe's "The Heather On the Hill" and the old chestnut "Tennessee Waltz". The empathy is already there when recording with a working group which usually makes for a great album. I was pleased to see among the tunes "Sweet and Lovely" and "My Ideal" both of which I have been attempting myself lately. That's the great thing about standards, hearing how each artist interprets them. "Just One of Those Things' is taken at an easy swinging pace rather than the usual frenetic tempo. The title track "My Shining Hour" is a shining example of great trio work exploring a tune. On "Sweet Georgia Brown" drummer Makaya McCraven sets up a funky tempo giving the tune new life. "Jitterbug Waltz" has been in the group's repertoire since it's inception but all the other tunes were newly approached by Bobby and the group. It is nice to see record companies like Origin recording great jazz guitar players like Bobby, Mimi Fox, Corey Christiansen, Peter Lerner and our member John Stowell. This new album is an example of the quality they are producing.