Dick Johnson And Lou Colombo

Artie's Choice! And The Naturals

      Dick Johnson is one of the most phenomenal reed players in jazz music. For the past 22 years, he has been the director of the Artie Shaw Orchestra. Lou Colombo is a veteran trumpeter and big band leader of exceptional quality whose name in the New England area is as well known as Paul Revere's. The two men have been friends from childhood and so it was natural that they came together to record. The result is Artie's Choice! And The Naturals. 

Produced by Johnson himself, the two-CD set is packed with a nice balance of swinging and "tasteful" jazz coupled with some gorgeous ballad playing by Johnson on clarinet, alto and tenor saxes, and alto flute and Colombo's golden trumpet. Joining in the fun is guitarist Gray Sargent (Johnson's son-in-law), pianist Dave McKenna (also a long-time friend of Johnson's and Colombo's); pianist Paul Schmeling; bassist Marshall Wood; drummer Gary Johnson (Dick's son); pianist Joe Delaney; digital B3 organist Diamond Centofanti; and vocalists Donna Byrne, Judy DeRossi, and Lori Colombo Asher (Lou's daughter).

While most of the selections were recorded recently, some tracks date back to the 1980s, because they are that hip, that fresh... just that good!... like Lazy Afternoon, a gently flowing duet piece between McKenna on piano and Johnson on alto-flute. The set also includes a very exciting big band version of Artie Shaw's Grabtown Grapple, a piece that Shaw wrote for his then wife, Ava Gardner, in 1945. It was originally recorded by his Gramercy Five small group. Here Shaw himself can be heard counting off the tune. Guitarist Joe Cohn, son of tenor sax giant Al Cohn, and his wife, band singer Mary Ann McCall, who was the Shaw's band's guitarist, offers some swinging comments of his own to the mix as does Colombo, who played in Shaw's new aggregation from 1983 to 1985.

Johnson's clarinet playing is sure, warm and yet masterful throught the CDs but nowhere is it more pronounced than on the gently swinging ballad, Indian Summer, which compliments perfectly Colombo's equally warm and masterful take on Stardust.

The two childhood friends swing magnificently on the Lester Young opus, Tickle Toe, while they hang on for dear life on the Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker anthem, Shaw 'Nuff.

Johnson, teaming up with pianist Schmeling, plays a very inviting clarinet on the pretty ballad piece on his original composition, Haze, while the band gets into a fun-loving the groove on Groove Merchant, which opens and closes the album.

Some classy jazz by some classy cats!

Track selections: Disc One  -  Groove Merchant, You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, Stadust/Indian Summer, Tickle Toe, Humpty Dumpty Heart, Someday My Prince Will Come/49 And Zero!, It's A Blue World/I'll Never Stop Loving You, Walkin', Young And Foolish, Mainstreamin' At Dave's Road House/Three Little Words, Rockin' Chair/Old Folks, Pray Tell, Sarah! Where's Dan?  Disc Two  -  Grabtown Grapple, Stella By Starlight/The Naturals, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, Sleepy Waltz, All Blues, Waltz For Debbie, Broadway, My One And Only Love, Agua De Beber, Emily, Haze, Shaw 'Nuff, Lazy Afternoon, Groove Merchant.

- Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

Rating:  *****

*****