Coming off the magnificent All Wrapped Up, Jared Gold is back just under a year later with Golden Child. A program that alternates standards with his originals, Golden Child is another parade of Gold’s advanced B3 articulations. Whereas on Wrapped he delved more into knotty arrangements and modalisms atypical of organ jazz, he returns to the organ/guitar/drums attack used on the prior Out Of Line (2010). As on that record, Gold creatively reworks the covers which again mines both the pop (“A Change iIs Gonna Come,” “Wichita Lineman”) and the jazz (“When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” “In A Sentimental Mood”) canons, plus a old spiritual (“I Wanna Walk”, Youtube below). Backed this time by Ed Cherry (guitar) and Quincy Davis (drums), the leader’s playing style still carries over some of the redolent approach he used so effectively on last year’s offering but remains a strong performer when he’s in the Dr. Lonnie Smith frame of mind, as he is for the Ellington tune. Though not as ambitious, there’s plenty good about Golden Child to make this a fine listening experience.
