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Bassist Charnett Moffett knocked folks out at his appearance in New Orleans earlier this summer with leader/pianist McCoy Tyner. He danced with his upright bass, moving it around as if it was a less sizable and stately instrument. He swung it, plucked it, bowed it, slapped it and actually almost stole the show from the mighty McCoy. Here, Moffett enjoys the total freedom of a primarily trio setting, employing the acoustic bass as well as electric and fretless basses and the piccolo bass. He’s got technique to burn no matter his choice of axe or style, and he moves from the classically influenced “Coral”—an interlude of sorts on which he plays solo—to the funk of “Enjoy Your Life,” when he steps to the microphone to sing. Matching Moffett’s chameleon-like musical nature, Stephen Scott is constantly switching from piano to synthesizer to create different moods. All the material except for “The Star Spangled Banner” come from Moffett’s pen and deal successfully with varying moods, such as the rapid fire “Jubilant” with wordless vocals by Maria Satori-Spencer with Aaron Spencer on soprano sax, and the optimistic “Wishful Thinking.” Moffett’s vibrant personality and sense of playfulness shines through, particularly on “Icon Blues.” He, pianist Scott Brown and drummer Amit Shamir have tons of fun on the closer, the electrified, funkified, screamer “RAS.” Surprisingly, somehow, most of these cuts are quite short by jazz standards, which makes the album of 71:38 fly by.
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