Claire Daly Quintet: 2648 West Grand Boulevard

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Jerome Harris (g)
Mary Ann McSweeney (b)
Steve Hudson (p)
Peter Grant (d)
Claire Daly (bs, f)

Label:

Glass Beach Jazz

May/2017

RecordDate:

date not stated

Arriving as a seeming response to our March reader's letter about Motown, this album (though doubtless recorded earlier) refers in its title to the company's original Detroit headquarters and the repertoire consists entirely of their songs. The New York-based ‘journeywoman saxophonist’, as she describes herself, takes 11 well-known melodies and converts them into great blowing vehicles, sometimes in straight time and sometimes with more funky (but not particularly Motownish) accompaniments. The same acoustic rhythm-section as on Daly's 2012 Baritone Monk project perhaps sounds best when at its funkiest, and the addition of Harris lifts them into a more inspired category, but it's really the leader's take-charge approach to the large horn that's the chief delight of this exercise. Daly plays flute only on ‘Hunter Gets Captured By The Game’ and ‘Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever’ and, whether your allegiance to the originals allows you to feel the same, there's definitely some compelling jazz going on here.

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