Jerry Vivino Quartet with Lew Soloff: Live at Shanghai Jazz (2004)

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: April 11, 2004

Jerry Vivino Quartet with Lew Soloff: Live at Shanghai Jazz

Jerry Vivino wants to have fun.

The multi-instrumentalist has played with the pop likes of Bruce Springsteen, Mark Anthony, Ricky Martin, the Max Weinberg 7, and Bette Midler. He has also appeared several movie soundtracks as well as his own recordings. So, how does a bright-lights kind of saxophonist play jazz?

Over the top, or course.

It takes balls the size of boulders to combine Sonny Rollins’ "Doxy" with the Rooftop Singers’ "Walk Right In" straight out of the chute...and make it work. He does not stop there. Vivino takes Rollins’ influential "Blue 7" and flows it into Louis Jordan’s "Caldonia." This is a guy with a sense of performance, style, and humor. And he still is not finished with Sonny Rollins. Following "Blue 7/Caldonia," Vivino takes a straight "St. Thomas" straight into the traditional "Marianne."

Vivino shows off his bar-walkin’ rhythm and blues chops with "Gator’s Groove" and King Curtis’ "Soul Serenade (which is segued into "One Scotch, One Bourbon, and One Beer"). But he is not all show. Mr. Vivino plays a beautiful flute on ballads "A Child is Born" and "Seven Steps to Heaven," aptly supported by his regular rhythm section and joined by New York mainstay Lew Soloff of trumpet and flugelhorn. There is nothing earthshaking here, only good clean fun. And that is reason enough to seek out this disc.

Visit Jerry Vivino on the web.

Track Listing: Doxy/Walk Right In; Gator

Personnel: Jerry Vivino

Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream