Joshua Breakstone is a hard-swinging veteran with strong bop tendencies coming out of the Barney Kessel/Tal Farlow/Jimmy Raney school of hornlike, single-note runs. A Jamais (Capri) finds him in familiar uptempo mode on “Taken for Granted” (an extrapolation on “Cherokee” and dedicated to Grant Green), the blazing title track and the unspeakably fast “Raids on the Unspeakable.” His French rhythm section of bassist Louis Petrucciani (brother of the late pianist Michel Petrucciani) and drummer Joel Allouche supplies requisite heat on the scorchers and provides sensitive accompaniment on sublime ballads like “Tomorrow’s Hours” and “1802.” Two diversions from the program of burners and ballads are Breakstone’s solo guitar renditions of the lovely “Chanson des Cevennes” and Bud Powell’s “Hallucinations.”
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