Home

Double-bassist Lorin Cohen plays regularly with pianist Monty Alexander and vibraphonists Joe Locke and Stefon Harris, and those gigs are reflected in Home, the bassist's debut album. By bringing aboard steel pan player and U.S. Virgin Islands native Victor Provost, Cohen, a Chicago native, revisits the reggae and Caribbean sounds he heard as a child while vacationing in South Florida with his family.

Cohen presents his deep, mahogany tone early into the opening cut "Crossings," which features some seemingly telepathic locked-in exchanges between him and Locke. "Always in My Heart" begins with native Parisian Yvonnick Prene's plaintive harmonica, as accompanied by pianist Ryan Cohan, before Provost's flowing steel pan lines are introduced.

The mix-and-match instrumentation, with percussionist Samuel Torres adding to the rhythm section, makes for a varied listening experience--"The Sweetest Soul (For My Father)" even features Cohan's keyboard playing and programming. The melodically uplifting "A Brighter Day" concludes this all-originals program that allows for the session leader to highlight his players, including kinetic drummer Donald Edwards.