Live at the Village Vanguard
The time is right for Tom Harrell to release a live album. The veteran trumpeter is leading one of his sharpest bands, he's got a batch of challenging originals to introduce, and the live format allows him to pick and choose from four days of performances at New York's famed Village Vanguard and eliminate the inconsistencies that sometime characterize his studio efforts. Celebrated for his lyrical intensity, Harrell is in full melodic flight on the sashaying "Blues in Una Sea" and the ballad standard "Everything Happens to Me." The quintet, including tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, pianist Xavier Davis, and drummer Quincy Davis, airs things out nicely on the driving, snaking "Asia Minor" and creates a moody minimalism on "Manhattan, 3 a.m.," a showcase for deep-tolling bassist Ugonna Okegwo. For all his offbeat harmonies and time and scale changes, Harrell is a little too tied to the hard-bop formula (he came up with a master of the form, Horace Silver) and his restraint rubs off on Greene. As live recordings go, this one is lacking in fire, but in resisting predictability and offering handsomely unified statements, it has much to recommend it.--Lloyd Sachs