Mainstream jazz is always a pleasure to hear when it’s played with crisp vitality and that’s just what trombone player David Gibson brings to the table with his sixth album Boom!. Due out January 20, 2015 by Posi-Tone Records, Boom! is comprised of mostly Gibson originals he wrote with members of his quintet in mind.
This 2003 Thelonius Monk International Trombone Competition finalist leads Josh Evans (trumpet), Theo Hill (piano), Alex Claffy (bass) and Kush Abadey (drums) through hard swinging numbers with a modern sensibility. That sort of tone is established right from the start, with the David Gibson number “The High Road.”
An unabashedly straight-ahead tune, “Road” features a snappy head and soon transitions into Gibson’s JJ Johnson-like solo. Evans and Hill respectively take their turns, too, and both deliver concise, energetic statements that don’t linger on too long.
David Gibson got the name of the song from trying to “convey the spirit of elevated enlightenment that offers a view of the destination, so as to avoid the petty arguments that litter the path.” There’s nothing littering the path of hard bop enlightenment here; it’s a straight-up jazz delight.
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