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Although Jimbo Ross has spent the last couple decades establishing himself as a top blues playing violist, he didn’t start out that way. Jimbo was originally a jazz guy who appeared on the famous Don Ellis recording, “Live at Montreux”, as well as many other jazz recordings over the years. After spending much of the 2000s playing blues, RnB and Zydeco, Jimbo has finally come full circle and returned to his jazz roots with his latest offering, “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin”. Notice that Jimbo plays the viola, not the more common violin or even ‘fiddle’. Viola players are rare in the jazz world, with LeRoy Jenkins and Jimbo being two of the few that are well known. Ross has added an extra treble string to his viola so that he can reach high violin notes as well as the viola’s usual deeper range.
The music on “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin” is a mix of bluesy hard bop, Latin jazz, some beautifully melodic contemporary tunes and a few ballads. The ensemble that Ross has gathered here does not go for flashy technique or gratuitous displays of practice room high speed scales. No, instead the solos are soulful and melodic and quite often steeped in the blues. You can tell Jimbo and his gang have been playing a lot of blues and RnB because their approach to jazz is not way different, which is kind of refreshing in a way. This is great outdoorsy party music, perfect for a backyard barbeque or visit to a favorite swimming spot. In the famous words of Lou Reed, ‘they play good times music’.
Although most of the songs on here are lesser known standards, one original by guitarist Joe Gaeta, “Don the Working Man”, has a gorgeous melody and nice chord changes. Hopefully we will hear more Gaeta originals on the next outing. Another nice melody comes with, “The Night has a Thousand Eyes”, a tenor sax version of this one was a big radio hit back in the late 70s, but it has since kind of disappeared, its nice Ross has brought this tune back. You get some up tempo bebop with “The Breeze & I” and “Indian Summer” and some energetic Latin jazz with “Delilah” and “Know it All”. Bluesy hard bop comes your way via Wes Montgomery’s “Jingles” and Gerry Mulligan’s “East Lag”.