November 1998

Ray Brown Trio and Ulf Wakenius
Summertime
Telarc

By Duck Baker

The notes here unwisely compare this group to the Wynton Kelley Trio with Wes Montgomery. Actually, Wakenius, who owes his annotator a swift kick, is a very solid post-Westerner with a convincing sound and conception of his own. No problem, obviously, at the bass spot, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson does OK. But Geoff Keezer and Kelly? I don't have the heart-let's just admit that there are no young pianists who can stand comparison to Wynton, either for beautiful, true-blue solos or perfect comping. This last deficit is glaring on this release, but the discovery of Wakenius is a nice surprise.