Customer Reviews

Still Dancin'

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This upbeat album will bring joy into your life. Kenny Washington, whose career took him from New Orleans eventually to the Bay Area, is a brilliant vocalist with a rich voice, bop phrasing, and searing hot scat. Michael O'Neill is a consummate reed man, whom we hear on clarinet and soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. His arrangements and improvisations are tight and tasty. His ensemble of musicians, varying on tracks, include Joe Locke on vibes; Steve Campos on flugelhorn; David Scott on trumpet; Gene Berkert on flute; Sam Bevan and Peter Barshay on bass; Deszon Clairborne, Alan Hall, and Michael Spiro on percussion; and John R. Burr, Art Hirahara, and Michael Bluestein on piano. Their selection of songs with one exception are all jazz classics, beginning with Cherokee, through Cheek to Cheek, So What, and You and the Night and the Music, and concluding with O'Neill's own Still Dancin'. Although the album features bright and fast pieces, the deeply expressive voice of Kenny Washington is also heard on more gentle ballads. If you are ever around the Bay Area to hear these musicians, you will be among a standing room only crowd. Meanwhile, get this album and hear some great, uplifting jazz.

What a great sound -- sassy, swinging arrangements and a brilliant ensemble. So Cooool and still so gutsy. Still Dancin' delivers energy at a tremendous pace with brainy, hip feeling. And Kenny Washington will blow your socks off! Still Dancin' AND The Long and the Short of It