New York Standards Quartet - Power of 10: New York jazzmen big on Japan

There aren't too many albums like Power of 10 being made anymore: a straight-ahead blowing record of standards (and originals that sound like standards) played by front-rank New York musicians.

The connection between the players is Japan: two of the quartet – pianist David Berkman and drummer Gene Jackson – have Japanese wives, and the band first emerged as a Tokyo-based project.

Saxophonist Tom Armacost, the group’s founder and driving force, has kept the band together and, 10 years on, there is an audible empathy between the players.

The fourth wheel is Michael Janisch, bassist, producer and founder of Whirlwind Records, to whose catalogue of contemporary UK sounds this throwback to bop is a welcome addition.

[ whirlwindrecordings.com ]