Jack Walrath and his Masters of Suspense turn to an idiom that was once among jazz's more popular, but in recent years has been almost ignored -- funk/soul-jazz. Besides a decent remake of James Brown's "Get On The Good Foot," the group opens with "Anya And Liz On The Veranda" and also does Charles Mingus'"Better Get Hit In Your Soul." Walrath's trumpet and flugelhorn horn solos are always intense and occasionally exciting; only the Brown remake falters, mainly because it was a textbook funk piece and doesn't translate well to a straight instrumental setting. Otherwise, the Masters of Suspense do a good job of displaying their soul-jazz chops. - Ron Wynn
Tracks
01. Anya And Liz On The Veranda (Jack Walrach)
02. Get On The Good Foot (James Brown/Joe Mims/Fred Wesley)
03. Better Get Hit In Your Soul (Charles Mingus)
04. Izlyal E Delyo Haidoutin (Haidouk Delya Has Joined The Rebels) (Trad.)(Bulgarian Revolutionary song during the Ottoman Occupation)(14th-16th Centuries)
05. Monk's Feet(Jack Walrach)
06. Decisions (Don Pullen)
07. Gloomy Sunday (Steven Chino Lewis/Rezsö Seress)
08. Weird And Wonderful ((Jack Walrach)
JACK WALRATH trumpet, flugelhorn
DON PULLEN organ
DAVID FIUCZYNSKI guitar
CECIL BROOKS III drums
MICHAEL FORMANEK acoustic bass
Recorded April 4, 1992 at Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Muse Records – MCD 5475