Greg Abate, Alan Barnes - Birds Of A Feather (2008)

Greg Abate - alto / tenor; Alan Barnes - alto / baritone; John Donaldson - piano; Andrew Cleyndert - acoustic bass; Spike Wells - drums.

Anybody who grew up in a place called Woonsocket probably has to have cultivated a phlegmatic outlook on life, and saxophonist Greg Abate - like his fellow Rhode Islander Scott Hamilton - clearly believes the long-familiar practices of classic bebop and mainstream swing have plenty of musical possibilities and ticket sales left in them. Like Hamilton, Abate is a regular visitor to the UK - and, again like Hamilton, he's the perfect partner for the British straightahead virtuoso Alan Barnes, engaging in a lively dialogue with him throughout this live recording from Leicester's Y theatre in November 2007. Pianist John Donaldson, bassist Andy Cleyndert and drummer Spike Wells make up the rhythm section. Half of the tunes are Abate's, one is Barnes's and the others are standards including Tadd Dameron's Hot House and Dizzy Gillespie's Be-bop. Abate's themes are dead right for the idiom, though not particularly memorable, but both saxophonists ingeniously improvise on them, with the amiable mainstream two-sax sound often driving the proceedings. Donaldson's ebullient trills and churning mid-tempo rhythms glimmer through the music, and grooving blues like Mr TC and The Y Blues revel in the snappily punctuated melodies this style depends on. It's unpretentious swing, played with effortless relaxation. ~John Fordham