Perry Smith: Peace

  Guitarist Perry Smith and his quietly simpatico trio with bassist Sam Minaie and drummer Dan Schnelle offer a calm musical program on Peace with straight-ahead interpretations of standards and a few jazz compositions. Richard Rodgers’ This Nearly Was Mine, from South Pacific, starts things off in a mellow vein, showcasing Smith’s clear, crisp sound. The temperature rises a bit for the trio’s romp through Sam Rivers’ Cyclic Episode, from the saxophonist’s Fuchsia Swing Song album for Blue Note. Schnelle drives the tune with a steady cymbal beat as Smith and bassist Minaie weave a tapestry of melodic invention. The result is a stirring performance that’s one of the disc’s highlights. Smith selected some grade A material for this outing. Their rendition of Jimmy Van Heusen’s Darn That Dream is very slow and rather downcast. Another Van Heusen song is the ever-lovely Like Someone In Love, which gets a tender reading by the band, featuring a moving bass solo by Minaie. Coming between them is another of the disc’s highlights, Billy Strayhorn’s Upper Manhattan Medical Group. A foot-tapping tempo, propulsive bass work by Minaie and Smith’s lyricism contribute to the track’s success. The title track is the Horace Silver song in a beautifully poised version, played with deep feeling. Guitarists have an immense field of possible influences. For this outing, Smith favors the classic jazz sound of his hollow-body Gibson ES-175. The trio recorded on a day when in Los Angeles in the middle of a tour, and the tight sound of the trio is evidence of the deep connection that they established on the road. Smith is based in Brooklyn, and when he returned to the West Coast to mix the album just before the pandemic, he recorded three solo guitar pieces which appear at the end of the trio material. Thad Jones’ A Child Is Born has been played hundreds of times since it first appeared in 1970 and Smith’s solo rendition emphasizes the loveliness of the melody. A snappy version of Victor Schertzinger’s I Remember You is my favorite of the solo tracks, with some deft playing setting up multiple lines. Finally, there’s a fine exploration of another oft-played song, Arthur Schwartz’s Alone Together. While it might have made more sense for sequencing to intersperse the solos with the trio material, the disc plays pretty well as it stands. Overall, it’s as comforting as Smith intended it to be, and I’m happy to have this music to turn to as a stress reducer. Recommended. 

Smith Tone; Perry Smith (g) Sam Minaie (b) Dan Schnelle (d); Los Angeles, CA, November 2019 exc. *February 2020 (solo guitar); This Nearly Was Mine/ Cyclic Episode/ Darn That Dream/ Upper Manhattan Medical Group/ Like Someone In Love/ Peace/ A Child is Born*/ I Remember You*/ Alone Together*; 43:29. www.perrysmithmusic.com