Andy Adamson First Light

Andy Adamson
First Light
Andros Records LLC

Ann Arbor, Michigan based pianist-composer-bandleader Adamson's influences include John Coltrane, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Chick Corea and over 50 years worked, and composed, in a variety of styles. This new release has nine of his straight ahead and jazz fusion compositions with a band including Brennan Andes on bass; drummer Jonathan Taylor; trumpeter Ross Huff and saxophonist Dan Bennett.

This is tight quintet that plays strongly on a varied program that opens with the Coltrane-flavored title track that showcases the leader's fluid piano style along with Bennett's robust, high intensity tenor sax. "Corner Store" is a latin-accented number with a nifty piano riff underlying this high-spirited quintet performance with shifting musical textures with Adamson and Bennett soloing. The opening of "Twilight in the Making" has a romantic tone before it transitions into a fusion evoking mode. Bennett's free-sounding tenor interacting with the leader's piano is at the front of "Velvet Sunset," followed by "Divided We Stand." "High Street Roundabout" is another engrossing performance with spirited tenor sax and piano with bassist Andes and Taylor ably backing and complementing them through shifts in tempo and textures from that the Adamson's lyrical improvisation to the more buzzsaw, vibrato-laden tenor of Bennett.

If Bennett and Anderson have most of the spotlight on "First Light," Huff's blistering trumpet is featured on the vibrant hard bop "Sunny Side Up," which also has a brief, taut solo from Taylor. It is a strong conclusion to this very memorable recording of modern jazz.

I received a download to review from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the November-December 2017 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 375). Here is Andy Adamson in performance.