On his
Origin Records
debut, Los Angeles pianist
Geoff Stradling
makes short work of showing why he was picked by the label. While the focus of
Origin
is generally on Northwest artists, they have some fair leniency if the music is good, and will pick up exceptional players that might not have been heard before otherwise. In the case of
Stradling
, you've probably heard him at some point in the past with his performances built in everywhere from Univision to
Entertainment Tonight
to
Jane's Addiction
. Here though, he isn't writing a jingle or theme. He's going through his roots and influences in
jazz
, and with a very solid accompanying band he lets loose on a whole range of styles. There's a clear Latin influence in a number of the tracks here, jumping from Cuba to Brazil and back regularly. There are also touches of
post-bop
and
soul-jazz
sprinkled liberally throughout, with multiple homages to the greats in the title track (
Les McCann
being the "Les") and half of the piano solos reminiscent in some way of
Bill Evans
. In particular,
"You Don't Know That"
shows off a good deal of
Evans
' style, and an even greater deal of
's chops. The numbers here are nearly all original, and the compositions are nearly flawless.
is an excellent player, with an excellent band, and some fine composing abilities. Absolutely worth a listen. ~ Adam Greenberg