Ron Blake - Lest We Forget [CD]

The veteran saxman loosely fashions his label debut as a tribute to three diverse and influential jazz legends, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington, Jr., and soul-jazz organist Charles Earland. Blake's more than up to the task of capturing the many moods of the first two, but how to capture the bluesy Hammond B-3 energy of Earland? Blake looked no further than Joey DeFrancesco, who brings his driving enthusiasm (and blazing sense of improv, where there are openings) to all but one of the tracks.