January 2004
CDs reviewed are available now at Virgin Megastore
In the French Quarter at Jax Brewery | 620 Decatur Street
504-671-8100
45 Minutes of FREE PARKING with Purchase
Check out the Big Easy's Biggest Selection of Louisiana Music located on our second floor.
The John Doheny Quintet
One Up, Two Back
Tenor saxophonist John Doheny is a native of Vancouver, Canada who makes his home in the Crescent City these days, doing graduate work in jazz history at Tulane.
Most of the nine tracks on this disc are in the five-to nine-minute range, allowing him and the other musicians in his quintet ample time to strut their stuff, and they do. Backed by Norm Quinn on trumpet and flugelhorn, Ridley Vinson on acoustic and electric piano, Allen Johnston on acoustic bass, and Stan Taylor on drums, Doheny and company kick up quite a storm. At times they even sound like Trane's immortal quartet, with the addition of the trumpet/flugelhorn. On the standard, "Once in Awhile," Doheny really cuts loose, showing off his range, versatility and mastery of his instrument's full capabilities, while on the closing track, "Perdido," he launches into a Coltrane-like improv solo. Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Dindi" and the Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne standard "Time After Time," feature the smoky, sultry vocals of Colleen Savage. There's even a little humor thrown into the mix here, with "Attack of the Killer Chalmations" as one of the song titles (Maybe they've been breathing those toxic refinery fumes too long).
- Dean M. Shapiro
Copyright © 2008 OffBeat, Inc. - reproduced with permission
