Alvin Queen: Night Train To Copenhagen

The former Oscar Peterson drummer leads a tasteful, swinging set of post-bop and standards in piano trio format

1826

Veteran drummer Queen lines up with Swedish pianist Brickman and Danish bassist Dall for a smooth post-bop set that manages to glide along neatly from start to finish. Queen is a swinger who makes a foot-tapping programme of music sound easy and natural.

The set is produced by Niels Lan Doky, who also contributes an original piece, Farewell Song, played solo by Brickman. The leader has also arranged for two further compositions to be played as piano solos without bass or drums, Tranquillity In The Woods (a Danish folk song) and a slow but very melodic version of the standard Some Other Time. The rest of the programme consists of well-known and much-loved standards and jazz staples.

This is, in some ways, an old-fashioned record of the kind rarely made today but only in the sense that it harks back to the golden age of bop and is played by three musicians with their own voices. Queen was Oscar Peterson’s drummer towards the end of the renowned pianist’s life and was with him until his death in 2007. Queen’s tribute to Oscar was his album named O.P. but this time round he has selected music from two of Peterson’s most popular records, Night Train and We Get Requests.

The tracks are mostly slow or medium tempo selections and well balanced. The only extended drum solo from the leader comes in the hard-swinging, uptempo reading of Moten Swing. He is always tasteful, solo or otherwise, moving the music along with well-placed fills and accents.. He has his own style even though he was a pupil of Elvin Jones from his youth. Brickman and Dall are fine throughout, bringing individual approaches to these familiar themes.

If you like old-style piano trio jazz with a contemporary flavour don’t pass on this one. It is a goodie.

Discography
Have You Met Miss Jones; Bag’s Groove; I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good; Farewell Song; Quiet Nights; The Days Of Wine And Roses; Goodbye J.D; Tranquillity In The Woods; D&E; Georgia On My Mind; Night Train; C Jam Blues; People; Moten Swing; Some Other Time (51.46)
Calle Brickman (p); Tobias Dall (b); Queen (d). Denmark, 22 & 23 March 2021.
Stunt Records 21062