The age of the classic chitlin’ circuit organ combo passed away with Jimmy Smith in 2005. Regardless, greasy-spoon organ jazz is still frequently summoned, if only in approximate form, beating the alternative of no new mainstream B3 music at all. New Yorker Jared Gold tore things up on hisSupersonic (Posi-Tone, 2009) and Dan Pratt’s Toe The Line (Posi-Tone Records, 2010), and continues to do so on Out of Line.
And how can an album go wrong when initiated with a Hank Mobley tune—”An Aperitif,” no less—from Mobley’s 1967 Third Season (Blue Note). Like “Funk In A Deep Freeze,” “An Aperitif” is devilishly complex hard bop. Gold’s version is sleek, low calorie funk buoyed by his bass-finding feet.Chris Cheek blows full- throated tenor with Dave Stryker’s fat chording and head work. Cheek’s solo has more than a little vertical John Coltranewithout the saxophone icon’s harshness. The performance is precision-fast and note-accurate, and swings magnetically.
