Album Notes

Kevin Crabb walks, to borrow from an ancient Scottish saying, with jam on both feet. It's not just that he's an accomplished drummer and composer. Think of it. As we speak, Kevin has gained a toe hold in the Grammy camp. Even if he loses he wins. Add to that the fact that with this album, Kevin has made giant steps into a jazz community in need of respite from the standards.

I speak as a drummer who has made a transition from almost daily studio work to occasional producing. That is, I've been on both sides of the glass. And I write about it in magazines and now on a website. The truth is that the same things that make drummers exciting are the things that make them as welcome as racehorses at a garden party.

Blessedly there are no such calamities in the present instance. Kevin Crabb is not going to sacrifice his compositions to arbitrary tom fills or crash cymbal excursions. This is not to say he's tinkling in the background, not when Don Thompson has loaned Kevin his personal stash of old K Zildjian cymbals and a Ludwig Jazzette kit that hearkens to Roy Haynes; or when Kevin is inspired by the classic overtones of a Steinway grand.

This is a work distinguished by tightly executed ensemble figures emerging naturally from fine tunes, spiked with bouts of rousing collective improvisation, captured in one full day, not three months. The jazz is alive, when, for example, Kevin's singing/urging leaks through his overhead mics in “Snow”. The jazz gains from Thompson's uncanny ability to get more bottom end from his upright on up-tempo numbers than others manage on ballads. The jazz feeds from Jefferson's ability to pump like a fire hose. And the jazz takes sustenance from Beasley comping, then standing out so effectively, as in “Spirit Dance”; here he's getting frisky as he makes the transition from samba march to montuno, a shout-chorus call that demands appropriate responses from Crabb.

If Richard Wilson can hear this album from beyond the pale, and Kevin knows that his mentor will spite the devil to do just that, he's grinning ear to ear, secure in the knowledge that he's one up on the deal he made with his student. The terms were simple. Richard would tutor Kevin in the craft of drumming and nurture the higher faculties; Kevin Crabb would pay handsomely in works of art.

T. Bruce Wittet
Drummer, music industry journalist (editor: Drums Etc; senior writer: Modern Drummer; correspondent, Rhythm, Down Beat, etc), founder Tbrucewittet.com, online magazine for drummers.