by Steve Koenig

This is more than a meeting; if it were bluegrass it would be a hoedown, if it were gospel it would be a revival meeting. It's jazz and it's simply joyous. With its continental sidewalk cafe sound, courtesy of William Schimmel's accordion and Miri Ben-Ari's violin, and its jazz and New Orleans rhythms courtesy of tubist/'bonist Wycliffe Gordon and Jeff Ballard and the perennially smiling and smile-causing Matt Wilson alternating tracks on drums, this mix is pinned via Ted Nash's playing (sax, clarinet and bass clarinet) and composition.

It opens with a nine-minute version of Debussys Prèmiere Rapsodie pour orchestre avec clarinette principale which has a wah-wah muted trumpet walk us down le trottoir where La Seine meets the Mississippi even before the second cut, "Jump Line." If you like Ray Anderson's N.O. material, this is required listening. The titles tell you the rest, style-wise: "Reverie," "Tango Sierra", "Summer Night In The Deep South," but this is of whole cloth. Ellington's "Amad" and Monk's "Bemsha Swing" are each injected with jumping beans; if you don't dance to it you must be dead.

Sidewalk Meeting is a required purchase for music-lovers of all tastes. Ted Nash is one of the founders of the invaluable Jazz Composers Collective. Now I'm going to put on William Schimmel's Dead End Ave. (Newport NPD 85999) and check out what else Wycliffe Gordon appears on, as I get Sidewalk Meeting ready to spin one more time. (The cover photo is brilliant, but check it out for yourself.)

Personnel: Ted Nash, saxophones and clarinets; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone sousaphone; Miri Ben-Ari, violin; Jeff Ballard and Matt Wilson, drums; William Schimmel, accordion.

Tracks: 1. Premiere Rhapsodie (Claude Debussy); 2. Jump Line; 3. Reverie; 4. Tango Sierra; 5. Sidewalk Meeting; 6. Amad; 7. Bemsha Swing; 8. Summer Night in the Deep South; 9. Sidewalk Meeting (Reprise).

Total Time: 52:52.

Recording: NYC, October 23-24, 2000.