Search - Billy Drummond :: Gift

The gift of Jazz

Ozzie | Brugge, Flanders | 09/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Billy Drummond (what's in a name ?) behind the drums is a guarantee for straight-ahead, no-frills jazz, as this album once again shows. Fortunately, Drummond's ego never takes the upperhand, so there are no half-hour drum solo's to be found. Drummond is the perfect example of a contemporary jazz drummer : not content just to be keeping a steady beat in the background, but an active part of a group effort, with a voice which is not ashamed of being heard and mixing with the other members of the band. Bass-player Peter Washington sounds as if he were made to partner Drummond. Bass and drums sound as if they were cut from the same tree, and both players gel perfectly. Two Canadians round out the quartet : Drummond's wife Renée Rosnes at the piano and tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake. Together the group produces energetic hard bop, the trademark it seems of the Criss Cross-label. Blake's saxophone on "Ode To Angela" (a Harold Land composition) is the gem on this album, but there really isn't a bad track here. Full marks to Criss Cross-owner Gerry Teekens for producing yet another in a series of top-notch modern jazz recordings."