Summit [CD]

Jerry Weldon - The Summit - "Keep it swinging; that's the main thing" is not only tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon's description of the music on this album from his new band but also can stand as his musical life motto. The band heard here reflects his love of the hard swinging, hard bop bands of the mid-20th Century, most notably Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (especially when it was a sextet with trumpet, tenor sax and trombone) and The Jazztet (of Benny Golson and Art Farmer). Weldon has put together a band of younger, but veteran, jazz musicians; Alonzo Demetrius, trumpet; Peter Lin, trombone; Mike Bond, piano; Jason Clotter, bass, and Carmen Intorre Jr., drums. This album was recorded live before an enthusiastic crowd at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Jersey.