Larry Corban, The Circle Starts Here

Guitarist Larry Corban embodies and carries forward the jazz guitar legacy we have inherited from some of the masters of the later fifties-early sixties. I mean Wes, Burrell, Kessel. . . all of the heavily swinging players you can think of get an extension in the playing of Larry Corbin on the nicely turned album The Circle Starts Here (Nabroc Records 001).

This is guitar-bass-drums trio finessing and fineness all the way through. Larry teams with the always-on bassist Harvie S and a swinging Steve Williams on the drums.

It's a nice set of 14 originals and standards. Larry has some excellent chordal-soloing ideas and rapid single-line prowess. He puts it all to good use here. What's especially encouraging and pleasurable about the CD is how Larry and company find a way to evoke the tradition without merely dishing it back to us as it has been handed down. They find a way to make it new. If you are a jazz guitar appreciator this will make you smile.