Avery Sharpe – I Am My Neighbors Keeper

Best known for his collaboration with McCoy Tyner, whom he accompanied for some twenty years, Avery Sharpe is a sought-after sideman who has played alongside the likes of Yusef Lateef, Archie Shepp and Art Blakey.

Less well known as a leader, he has nevertheless recorded some fifteen albums under his own name, of which this is the latest.

He presents himself as bassist, soloist and composer on eleven tracks in which his quartet is accompanied by a string quartet.

The string arrangements are often nervous and sometimes languid, but never weigh down the music, which on the contrary is boosted by a swing that is sometimes dreamy and sometimes pugnacious.

The basses (four and six-string acoustic and electric) are often brought to the fore in sap-filled solos in which Sharpe‘s magnificent tone is a marvel, and the compositions are all marked by a pronounced taste for melody. On some themes, a balafon or African percussion add a new color to the music, but the album’s homogeneity doesn’t suffer from it.

Only an unoriginal sung blues on which the string quartet doesn’t intervene breaks the unity of this repertoire, but we’ll forgive Sharpe this incursion into banality.

The rest is top-quality acoustic jazz with warm tones and lively swing, skillfully arranged by a musician who knows how to be inventive while remaining true to tradition, and who has chosen partners to accompany him who are totally committed to a project they bring to life admirably.