T

he thought of summer staggering to a soggy conclusion and then the dismal autumn hoving into view doesn't really enthuse me. Something though that does comes along in September. It's the Loyal label release of drummer Vinnie Sperrazza's record Apocryphal (****), and you can listen to 'Spalding Gray', the third track of this alto sax/guitar/bass and of course drums affair, above. Sperrazza has been kicking around for a while quietly enough learning his craft earlier in his career under the wing of Memphis pianist James Williams (1951-2004) relentlessly honing his style as he went along and now on this his fourth album reaching an important staging post. Caustic, you might say, sour you might even essay, it's an album with a certain gritty edge to it equipped with a tough probing attack from altoist Loren Stillman, Ribot-calibre liquidy electric guitar from Brandon Seabrook, and deft pulsing double-bass lines from an engaged Eivind Opsvik. The album was recorded in Brooklyn in October 2012, and the album surely will appeal to both jazz and indie fans, the plangently New Cool tunes all the Vin man's own.