The Gascoyne O’Higgins Quartet, The Real Note Vol 2, Jazzizit Records ****
A
year on from the release of the volume one sister set recorded the previous year here again are the former Jamie Cullum bassist Geoff Gascoyne along with hard hitting saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, Gascoyne’s Cullum rhythm section playing partner the swinging Sebastiaan De Krom and Stacey Kent pianist Graham Harvey.
Reconvening in February at the south London studio O’Hig runs with his wife, the place dubbed “Judy Van Gelder”, it’s a Englewood Cliffs-friendly album of Gascoyne and O’Higgins contrafacts seasoned with Duke Ellington’s ‘Sophisticated Lady’ and the Bird/McRae/Woods song ‘Broadway’, the last of these inspiring the inner Dexter Gordon in O’Higgins scrambling to get out.
Extremely classy high quality retro Blue Note-esque sounds where the minor blues, waltz-time episodes, Gershwin-derived rhythm changes, and even a new tune based on cheesy Andy Williams number ‘May Each Day’ jog along played down, congeniality and collegiality a given.
• The quartet play a pre-release late set at the Wigmore Hall, London on 25 July
