Grover also re-employs long-time collaborators Tony Gaboury on guitar (his Empathy features Grover and Grover’s compositions) and Chris Van Voorst Van Beest on bass (Van Beest taught with Grover at Augusta before leaving for NYC’s larger pastures). Van Beest is impossible to miss, with a never predictable bottom-end presence that sometimes takes over songs by default. His work on “Part Time,” for example, isn’t intimidating in its difficulty, but everything in the song feeds of his repeating six-note phrases that finish up, then down, up, then down, a spinning wheel of progress, understated like the movement of history. Overall, it’s probably the best tune here, with a noirish swagger, the two horns battling it out for who’s got the biggest gun, the sharpest crease in the pants, and the most beat-up fedora.
Gaboury’s presence is the subtlest on the disc. Often, you barely notice he’s there, especially since his tone might remind you of an organ player from time to time. But his chords usually make up a song’s melodic underpinning, and his solo on the appropriately titled “One for Tony” is free and easy, like a bachelor out on a walk on a spring morning, feeling his oats, with some excellent quick moves up and down the fretboard, but still not much volume, remaining low in the mix, with the bass sometimes seeming to stand on top of it, Grover’s high hat always prominent in the right channel. Make sure to listen here for the sax and trombone feeling their oats as well, mid-tune, popping out staccato hits like fists jabbing the air.
If you really want to hear Grover paired with some out-there guitar, pick up last year’s release by the Richard Nelson Quintet, Origin Story. Here you can find sprawling, acidic takes on four tunes by Nelson, one by trumpeter Don Stratton, and the finale, “I Know Noble Accents,” a Grover number. I’d buy the disc if only to own something with a song titled “Bloated Hawks: Dick Cheney, We Will Pay for this Arrogance,” but the group of 2003 recordings that have just now seen the light of duplication are plenty worthy in their own right. Nelson has a deft touch and is creative in his writing, knowing when too much noise is not enough, but never forsaking a good melody when it comes along.
Hear it for yourself at the Theater Project when Nelson gets the band together February 15. Of course, Grover will be on drums.
On the Web
Steve Grover: www.stevegrover.com
Richard nelson Quintet: www.myspace.com/richardnelsonmusic
Email the author
Sam Pfeifle: sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com
