Trombonist Glenn was inspired by baseball to write and arrange eight tunes for a sextet with the most typical Jazz Messengers’ instrumentation of trumpet, tenor, trombone, piano, bass and drums. All of the titles of the tunes (for example, “Lost in the Sun” and “Bottom of the Ninth”) relate to baseball. The tunes are pleasant and well executed and performed in a slightly more contemporary style than that of; for example, the Messengers in the Wayne Shorter days.
The record is good but suffers when compared to the best of the genre. None of the tunes stand out as well or is as memorable as those written by the likes of Shorter, Walton, Fuller, Golson and Timmons for the Messengers The soloists are competent professionals who are certainly good enough to record but their solos are also not at the level of the Messengers in their heyday.
Dave Glenn: National Pastime
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