Easy going, sunny, it’s hard to dislike but just as difficult to enthuse unless you are a die-hard fan about this latest album from the prolific and popular reeds player Alan Barnes teaming here with long time chum cornetist Warren Vaché. In the cornetist’s sleeve notes he talks about staying at Alan’s place in his spare room for some weeks before recording the album in May last year “playing Jeeves to the other’s Bertie”, note the diplomacy, and there is a kind of mainstream protocol about the album, ambassadors of the style, meeting for a round table where a congenial but old fashioned atmosphere rules on a bunch of tunes including opener Oscar Pettiford’s ‘Swingin Til The Girls Come Home’, ‘The Very Thought of You’ and Johnny Hodges’ ‘Way Back Home’. Vaché sings on a few tunes including the good natured ‘A Man With A Million Dollars’, and the unassuming title track is a Vaché tune. The pair are joined by Scott Hamilton’s rhythm section from Dean Street Nights. SG
