Keeper of the Drums (Marvin Smith; Concord Jazz).
Marvin (Smitty) Smith`s first album as a leader, ”Keeper of the Drums”
suggests that, like many of today`s young jazz musicians, Smith is eager to re-create the past-or at least to venture back through time in search of useful artistic plunder. So on the album`s first side Smith summons up the relentless assaults of Art Blakey`s mid-1960s Jazz Messengers, while on the second side there are echoes of Horace Silver and Tadd Dameron, among others. But even though some of Smith`s writing is needlessly busy and rather second- hand, he has assembled a talented group (trumpeter Wallace Roney, trombonist Robin Eubanks, saxophonists Steve Coleman and Ralph Moore, pianist Mulgrew Miller and bassist Lonnie Plaxico), which he proceeds to kick along with a near-irrestible, swinging zeal. Smith`s drums are prominently recorded, but in this case, that is exactly as it should be. (Reviewed on LP.)
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