The Gary Smulyan and Frank Basile Quintet – Boss Baritones
(Steeplechase SCCD 31963 – album review by Mark McKergow)

This pairing of New York’s finest baritone saxophone exponents brings a feast of swinging, straight-ahead and joyful jazz in the hard bop tradition.

Gary Smulyan has been in the business for over 40 years and has held the baritone sax chair in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band) since 1980. The group still plays at the Village Vanguard every Monday night, a must-see if you’re in New York. He has been at the top of his game for years, winning six Grammys and many polls. His new partner is Frank Basile, from New York via Texas and relatively new kid on the block, also performing with top groups including the Bob Mintzer Big Band and the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra. These guys, both influenced by Pepper Adams, seem to have the NYC baritone business sown up between them, so when they started performing together in 2020 (a week before the pandemic) it was clearly a match that had to happen. Many more dates followed, leading up to this debut album recorded in December 2023.

The title of the album (Boss Baritones) is a clear and obvious call-back to the long-lived Tough Tenors line-up featuring Johnny Griffin and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, who entertained fans around the world (and on several albums) with their take-no-prisoners full-on style. Heck, they even open with a Griffin/Davis anthem, Matthew Gee’s Oh Gee, a 12-bar plus middle eight romp that’s made for this kind of duelling dynamism. We’re right away into the two horns swapping choruses and then fours in exhilarating style. It’s fully five minutes into the track before they pause for breath, allowing Steve Ash on piano and Mike Karn on bass, both New York regulars, to take a turn.

The music continues to bring forth sparkling takes on modern jazz standards. I’ll Never Be The Same is taken at a rollicking pace with tuneful horn harmonies in the theme. Star Eyes, made popular by Charlie Parker, opens with chunky horn riffing and offers a good outing for Karn’s springy bass. The Tough Tenors influence continues with Lockjaw Davis’ Hey Lock and Griffin’s Fifty-Six, a late career composition buzzing with the pace and energy for which the ‘Little Giant’ was renowned.

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Illinois Jacquet’s loping 1949 tune Black Velvet is as close as we get to a ballad in this set; there’s a bit of space to hear how the two horns compare at less-than-galloping speed, with Basile’s solo rich in thematic statements and Smulyan fluent in coasting around the chords. Eddie Haywood’s Land Of Dreams is given a sprightly Latin introduction, while Byas A Drink is Don Byas’ contrafact on Stompin’ At The Savoy, a very happy meeting of tune and talent. The set sprints to a close with tenor saxist JR Montrose’s 1959 belter Straight Ahead with Smulyan taking his solo as a duo with Aaron Seeber on drums, with Seeber finally getting a bit of solo space before the closing theme.

This very enjoyable album will find many enthusiastic listeners who will know what they’re getting and will love the ride with these two baritone masters. It’s almost like it’s 1959 all over again…

Mark McKergow’s show “A History of Jazz in Four Saxophones will be on the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe – DETAILS / BOOKINGS

Boss Baritones is released today, Friday 28 June 2024.

Link: Buy Boss Baritones from Presto Music
Mark McKergow’s review of Tough Baritones with Smulyan and the late Ronnie Cuber from 2021