Other than a few tunes on IPO's recent CDs dedicated to the music of Thad Jones ("One More - Music of Thad Jones" and "One More - The Summary") this new recording will - amazingly - be the first time these two modern jazz giants have recorded together in their entire careers spanning seven decades.
Hank, the dean of jazz pianists in his 90th year, has never been more popular and is playing as well as ever. Moody, who turned 83 this year, is also playing brilliantly. The two of them together have lived the entire history of modern jazz and it comes through every measure of their music.
The closing track features 2007 Grammy nominee Roberta Gamborini, a brilliant young vocalist who is a protégé of both Moody and Hank and has been getting phenomenal reviews in her recent performances with both of them.
In keeping with IPO's basic approach, this is a straight-ahead, no-nonsense recording of standards and tunes that have long associations with the musicians, including modern jazz classics penned by Tadd Dameron, with whom Moody first performed along with Miles Davis in the late 1940s, and Dizzy Gillespie, with whom Moody played in big and small bands throughout the next 40 years. There are also some piano-tenor duets between Moody and Hank, including a version of Body & Soul that recalls the benchmark performances by Coleman Hawkins, with whom Hank first worked in 1948.
James Moody - Hank Jones
