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BY FRANK ALKYERTyler Mitchell Quintet,
Live At Smalls
Every few months, I’ll get a package in the mail that brings a true smile. It’s the latest set of recordings from the SmallsLIVE record label—usually three or four new discs, all recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club in New York. They tend to be sets of good, honest music performed in this cozy, Greenwich Village basement venue. In the labTYLER MITCHEel’s latest batch, my favorite comes from the Tyler Mitchell Quintet. For Mitchell, this performance was a homecoming. The bassist—once a first-call NYC musician who collaborated with drummer Art Taylor, pianist Barry Harris and saxophonist Steve Grossman—hadn’t played in the city for a decade before this gig with a group of younger, accomplished musicians. And, thankfully, it was recorded. Mitchell’s Live At Smalls is a timeless jazz album, at once dripping in post-bop tradition and fresh as the morning news. The album delivers a noir-yet-uplifting feel, as demonstrated by “Caton,” a Mitchell original written for his father, an artist on Chicago’s South Side, where Mitchell grew up. The band on this date—trumpeter Josh Evans, tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton, pianist Spike Wilner and drummer Eric McPherson—beautifully serves the set of four Mitchell originals and one by Wilner. If you’re wondering where Mitchell has been for the last decade, indications are that he found a home in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. Hopefully, the success of this album will convince him to come north of the border more often. The Tyler Mitchell Quintet is a real treat.
Smalls Jazz Club | iTunes downbeat.com
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