THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040121
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Album review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
JAE SINNETT has kept a high profile in Hampton Roads' ebbing and flowing jazz scene for more than a decade. As WHRV-FM deejay and promoter of various concert series, he's worked to spread the word on his favorite music.
But Sinnett is, of course, best known as a drummer - one constantly seen on stages around the area, taking a place behind the kit on many of the bills he assembles for such venues as the Williamsburg Regional Library. He regularly records, too, and recently issued his third album, the punningly titled ``House and Sinnett'' (Positive Music).
The disc finds Sinnett in a quartet setting with saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Clarence Seay and Cyrus Chestnut (whose own ``Revelation,'' on Atlantic, is one of the year's best piano records). Save for the standard ``Sometimes I'm Happy,'' all the writing is Sinnett's and displays his facility to incorporate various styles and moods into the music without overweening self-consciousness.
The salsa-tinged ``Abdu's Fiesta'' is one of the disc's best examples of Sinnett's fluency. While keeping its Caribbean attitude front and center, the theme also alludes subtly to Coltrane's ``My Favorite Things.''
Chestnut shines here, offering a solo that emulates the sound of quickly splashing rain before breaking into even livelier cascades of notes.
Sinnett allows himself one overt display of technique at the beginning of the longest cut, ``Steady as She Goes.'' Still, Sinnett keeps the Latin groove at more of a rolling boil than a tidal wave.
Most impressive of all may be the closer, ``Workin' to Work.'' It begins with a series of dramatic group flourishes, then settles in at a lightly strolling tempo that leaves room for some dramatic solos by Wilson and Chestnut over Seay's rock-solid bottom. It's a performance that engenders hopes of an encore from the lineup soon. MEMO: To hear excerpts from this recording, call INFOLINE at 640-5555 and
punch category 3786. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
by CNB