After Hours Cary NC

After Hours

Eric Allison

Contemporary Records, 1997

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/18/1998

Although I don't listen to a lot of jazz, I have been trying toexpand my knowledge of this musical form. It's not that I don'tlike it - the little I have heard, I love jazz. It's just that I'vebeen immersed in rock for so long that my "random pulls" out of thePierce Memorial Archives (bring me the head of Bill Wirtz on aplatter) are almost always exclusively rock.

But what I have discovered is this: I like my jazz crunchy. Themore uptempo the mood, the better - if I'm not tapping my foot toit or bopping my head to the beat, odds are I'm not happy.

Eric Allison, then, is an enigma to me. On his second CD After Hours, Allison shows how comfortable he is with theuptempo numbers. But Allison also overachieves a bit - he tries toprove that he's a capable musician in many different flavors ofjazz. Listening to this disc is enjoyable, no doubt about that -but when I go to Baskin-Robbins, I don't want to taste all 31flavors.

To say that Allison is the "leader" of this combo is a slightmisnomer. Sure, he's usually the one upfront playing tenor or altosaxophone (and, on one occasion each, flute and clarinet). But hisfellow players are just as equally important to the overall feel ofeach piece as Allison is - and without even one of them in the mix,the whole picture would suffer. Dr. Lonnie Smith's piano work isastounding, though I can't say I was very impressed with his twooutings on the Hammond B-3. Bassist Dennis Marks and drummer DannyBurger each have to wait some time for their solo leads, but it'swell worth the wait for both of them. And I couldn't begin to sayenough about the trumpet work of John Bailey - I wouldn't haveminded hearing him on more than the five tracks he plays on. (Alsoplaying on the disc are alto saxophonist Jesse Jones, Jr. andbaritone saxophonist Turk Mauro.)