(ABC Jazz)
PIANIST composer Isaacs says a good standard is “like a circle with a gap” because “there’s some way to mess it around a bit”. The breadth of his musical experience is evident whether he is messing with jazz standards or, as in this case, revelling in his original compositions.
Here Isaacs lives out his dream of a perfect band playing his music as he and guitarist James Muller meet US musicians Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Jay Anderson (acoustic bass), Bob Sheppard (saxophones) and Steve Tavaglione (sax and flute) for a day’s rehearsal, then record at Hollywood’s Capitol Studios. Isaacs’s classical heritage shows in his solo to open Walk a Golden Mile, Sheppard and Muller seamlessly trade solos in Walk for Melanie, and Affectionately Yours unites sax and piano like comfortable lovers — before the affair gets steamy.
Isaacs need not have gone to LA for his dream musicians, but they play as if cast together years ago.
In short: Oscar material as Isaacs’s dream has a Hollywood ending.
ROGER MITCHELL
Ausjazz Blog 