Learning about Carl Sanders from Summit

from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed

Until the beginning of this week, I had never heard of Carl Saunders. Through his Wikipedia page I learned that he had “worked with Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Bill Holman, and Clare Fischer, in addition to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Paul Anka.” Ironically, my two Fischer CDs are both classified as “classical” in my collection, meaning that, in that list of names, the only “jazz” recordings in my collection are those of Fitzgerald. I feel it necessary to begin with this “opening statement” as an act of “full disclosure.”

However, this week began with an unsolicited package from Summit, which included the fifth volume in a series of releases entitled New Jazz Standards: The Music of Carl Saunders. Fortunately, the accompanying booklet included a statement by Saunders about that title:

I have been writing tunes all of my life. I had many of them sitting by the piano, unorganized and looking like a bit of a mess. I finally decided to print them out and organize them in a folder and finally publishing them into a book which I called New Jazz Standards which has over 300 songs.

Each volume consists of selections from that book performed by a different soloist and/or leader. The four previous volumes involved the following jazzmen:

1. Sam Most
2. Scott Whitfield
3. Roger Kellaway Trio
4. Larry Koonse

The latest release is another trio album led by pianist Christian Jacob. Rhythm is provided by Darek Oles on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. The only name that registered with me was that of LaBarbera through his work as a member of a Bill Evans trio.

Sadly, there really was not anything on the twelve tracks of this new album that drew my attention, let alone hold it for the duration. Rather, the experience reminded me of past encounters when I would meet a few friends for dinner and then discover that there was a jazz trio performing in the restaurant. More often than not on these occasions, conversation took precedence over serious listening. When one reads the descriptions of the individual tracks in the booklet, one is likely to approach those tracks with optimistic curiosity. However, there is too much of a sense of the “same old same old;” and attention does tends not to hold for any serious duration.

Mind you, thanks to my Music Choice service, my day begin with the Charles Mingus track “Better Get Hit In Your Soul.” So I was loaded for bear at the beginning of my working day and was not prepared for a well-domesticated house cat! The best I can say is that I felt that Jacob and his trio colleagues gave each track their all, but that was not enough to make for a satisfying listening experience.