Bob DeVos - Playing for Keeps

Savant 2088

Don’t let the calculated photo-op cover on this one scare you. The black beret and sunglasses may seem like a self-conscious stab at jazz hep, but guitarist Bob DeVos makes no attempts to mask the stimulus for his latest album, that of the classic Larry Young-Grant Green-Elvin Jones Trio. His forthrightness of intent is refreshing and while there are those that will dismiss the disc as derivative from the onset, DeVos doesn’t much seem to care. He’s fully enamored of the jazz tradition and more than happy to ply his plectrum within it. A long career in the business starting with sideman work for organists Trudy Pitts, “Groove” Holmes and others led to an extended tenure with Charles Earland that lasted until the latter organist’s death. That B-3 littered career path feeds right into this session and DeVos makes the precedent-prone instrumentation seem not only like second nature, but also a viable means of fresh expression.

Organist Dan Kostelnik’s chosen Young elliptic ensures an ensemble emphasis on postbop over soul jazz. A nod to the latter idiom does come with the slinky DeVos original “Pause for Fred’s Claws” inspired by Booker T & the MGs’ “Green Onions”, but souped up with a more intricate chord progression at its center. DeVos models his clean picked notes after a horn’s tone and phrasing, shaping warm decorous patterns in concert with Kostelnik’s slippery comping. Drummer Steve Johns is comparably flexible in his rhythms, keeping a light touch on the ballad paced “Speech Without Words” and slightly miscast Monk’s “Ask Me Now” while pushing the tempo with a harder strokes on McCoy Tyner’s “Blues on the Corner”.

Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander joins the field on four out of the ten numbers including the most adventurous cut, a brisk rendering of Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance”. DeVos describes the performance as “free”, which is a stretch, but it does feature some of the most unfettered Alexander I’ve heard thus far on record, the usual starch in his collar bled out in a swirl of fluctuating harmonies. “Wes is More” ends things on a painful pun, but the tune itself pays tribute to Mr. Montgomery in pithy fashion with some fine and frugal blues playing. Though DeVos and his crew cook from mostly quotidian recipes, the dishes he comes up with still contain a commendable amount of flavor and the beret ends up well earned.

~ Derek Taylor