Rating: 3 Stars
The Chiaroscuro label has been mining the S/S Norway "Floating Jazz Festivals" for years now, recording live performances from some of the most respected veterans in the business. All those relaxed presentations of wonderful music - complete with warm responses from happy audiences - finally inspired even me, the Nauseous-at-Sea, to book a cabin on the next voyage in October. When doing so, I learned it would be the last: apparently the QE2 will now take over the jazz cruise franchise, plying the East Coast rather than the warmer southern waters. This disc is yet another seaworthy sampling, "recorded 26, 27, 29 and 30 October 1997 in various parts of the Caribbean Sea," offering over an hour of toe-tapping, familiar, companionable jazz.
The music, which was spontaneous and unrehearsed, is most enjoyable on the blues - seven of which are his own - where McShann can apply the well-loved Kansas City interpretations that he's honed for 70 years. His style doesn't lend itself to a ballad like "Moonlight in Vermont," but bringing Philips front and center on "As Time Goes By" works nicely. There are plenty of gleaming moments, however, as when Professor Phil Woods teaches Slow, Smoky Alto Blues 101 on "Kewpie Doll", with McShann on droll vocals and a rockin'-on-the-porch segment from Betts and Williams (Hootie's singing of "All of Me" should be studied by all wedding and bar mitzvah vocalists as a model of taste and understatement). This is immediately followed by a swinging visit to Parker's "Yardbird Suite," showcasing more of Woods's inimitable playing, his tone like honey in a sharp-edged container. In keeping with the light-hearted mood, he weaves in a whiff of "Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead." (Note: fans of jazz humor will enjoy all the sly quoting on this disc, especially from Betts.) Flip Phillips adds his rounder tenor sound to "Flippin' the Blues," which he wrote with McShann; it rolls like I hope the ship doesn't, then rocks on "Sweet Georgia Brown" - ditto.
A nice, low-keyed party, this one.
JS
