BY NICK MONDELLO
Jazz Passion & Satin Latin from elite viola player Jimbo Ross offers a dozen selections drawn across a wide array of resources. From tried-and-true GASsers, to more obscure, but, fascinating, jazz compositions, all seasoned with Latin flavorings, Ross and his compadres deliver an invigorating session.
The album opens auspiciously with Ross in viola-guitar unison in a heated Latin-straight-ahead take covering of "Delilah." It mirrors Clifford Brown and Max Roach's arrangement from their classic 1954 Grammy Hall of Fame album. Ross takes off con fuego before pianist Stuart Elster and guitarist Joe Gaeta offer their own torrid solos. Ross is spotlit on "Polkadots and Moonbeams." It is presented in a light ballad-swing lilt. Ross takes the call and response melodic format of Wes Montgomery's early recording, "Jingles," and develops it into a burner, albeit somewhat slower than the original. Ross's throaty viola sings and solos on his lovely, but oddly-named for a waltz, "Don the Working Man." The composer stretches out nicely here, as does Elster.
Ross, a well-recorded session player across the pop, rock and jazz worlds, is a marvelously interesting player—and not only for his special 5-string electric viola/violin which he calls his "guit-fiddle." He has awesome technical chops, a joyous performing flair, and displays a stylistically swinging energy that reverberates back to the great violinists such as Joe Venuti, Stephane Grappelli, Stuff Smith, and more recently, Jean-Luc Ponty.
Three well-worked standards comprise the heart of the album. "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes," "Emily" and "Indian Summer." The first tune in that trio is a Latin-straight-ahead arranged track. "Emily" is also taken as originally presented—a swaying waltz. Bassist Peter Marshall, with a fine solo, and drummer Ron Wagner keep things tasty. "Indian Summer" is a torrid swinger and the most intense of these three. The lovely samba "Know It All" is a joyous framework for Ross' bursts of delightful strings. Gaeta and Elster join the party with Marshall and Wagner similarly upbeat. This is a highlight track. "Says You,” a Sam Jones composition, is pure speedball bop with all stretching out before all alternating fours. Cuban composer Ernesto Leucona's "The Breeze and I" from his Suite Andalucia is usually performed at a much slower tempo than the lightning-fast effort performed here. Ross and all show max virtuosity in this frantically-paced closer.
Track Listing: Delilah, Polkadots & Moonbeams, Jingles, Don the Working Man, Lolita; The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; Emily, Indian Summer, Know It All; East Lag; My Man's Gone Now; Say's You; The Breeze and I.