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Ray Brown Trio and Ulf Wakenius: Summertime

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.

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