THE BIG THREE TRIO

We Got Rhythm

2006-01-02

Amazingly packaged by hand (cool drumsticks in the jewel case), the picture of the three old guys on the back doesn’t get one thinking those dudes have much rhythm left – but that would be wrong! I liked this swing/standards set from these three. Big Joe Maher is the leader of “Big Joe & The Dynaflows” and pianist John Cocuzzi is from the same swing band. This particular set is a mix of instrumentals (#1, #4, #5, #10, #12) and vocals (the rest); all of the instrumentals are nicely done as a piano-bass-drums trio and ditto for the vocals, with the exception of the most famous tunes. We really don’t need these guys doing another version of “God Bless the Child,” for example. But there are great lesser-known tunes they do up well, such as “Dead Presidents” (#7) and “Ain’t the Gravy Good?” (#9). Bravo, gents! Keep swingin’ (gives us aging music lovers hope). -MJVD