2011 · Album
Undeniable
Recorded June 2009, Blues Alley, Washington, D.C. · HighNote · Produced by Darryl J. Brodzinski (executive producer)
Blues Alley Fire, Undeniable Hands
Martino's live Blues Alley date with Tony Monaco's organ and Eric Alexander's tenor is hard-swinging, no-nonsense fun.
Tony Monaco's organ is what gives this record its particular weight. Monaco is the sideman who shapes the sound here, filling the room with the fat, rolling tones that the trio format demands, and he pushes the group forward when it might otherwise settle. On "Midnight Special" his stormy exposition plays against the shuffle groove, and Pat Martino's fluid guitar romp rides right into the middle of it. That tension, between Monaco's churn and Martino's easy lines, is the reason the album feels alive rather than merely competent.
The recording itself was made live at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., in June 2009, and it was released on HighNote. Eric Alexander's tenor saxophone completes the front line and trades ideas with Martino in a way that keeps the set moving. Jeffrey "Tain" Watts drives the drums with the forward push a live crowd tends to bring out. The project began as a Darryl J. Brodzinski idea, first planned for Birdland in New York before it moved to Blues Alley.
JazzTimes called it one of Martino's best recordings in years, and it reached number one on the Jazz Record Charts and earned a Jazzwise Five-Star Review. For a listener new to Martino, this is a good entry point into his later work: straightforward, lively, and built around the interplay of a tight group rather than a single concept.
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