It's tuneful, crunching, power-trio rock, alive with crackling guitars, a full-steam-ahead rhythm section, intensely felt vocals, and finely crafted songs that walk tall through adulthood's ironies and inevitabilities.
Against a well-upholstered backdrop — orchestral strings, rock rhythm section, full-voiced gospel choir — he starts to vamp, singing what seem to be ad-libbed phrases with an uncharacteristically soulful inflection.
His recent trio -- with Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits -- navigates the extraordinary ballads that are his greatest strength, as well as more helter-skelter, fragmented pieces using the rhythm section's full ingenuity.
He first recorded with a full orchestra (the trio serving as rhythm section) in 1946 for "The Christmas Song," a holiday standard and one of Cole's biggest-selling recordings.
An orchestra with no rhythm section has not reached its full potential.
Joined by the pianist Kelly and his trio (Miles Davis's former rhythm section), Montgomery takes long, ebullient guitar solos, full of magnetic push-and-pull with Kelly's frothy piano playing and the clattering drums of Jimmy Cobb.
This year, Ellington brought with him his entire saxaphone section, plus Willie Cook and Lawrence Brown, and the rhythm section.
With a band including a few Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra members and the exciting rhythm section of the newcomers Barak Moriand Rodney Green, it's full of concise arrangements and fleet, fifth-gear swing.
I had no idea, but apparently over 80 stores across the country now carry your standard rhythm section fare of drums, guitars, and basses, along with a full DJ gear section and live sound equipment.
