Simply Put

• Track Listing

Jerry Bergonzi, a Bostonian who has been plying his trade for more than four decades, has had a notable career as a player/educator that has included quality time with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, among others, and this is the twenty-sixth recording he has made as leader of his own groups. The tourist is a long-established master of extracting maximum artistry with a minimum of fuss, which masks the fact that there is nothing simple about either the contents or the execution of this release. Spurred by a first-class rhythm section, Bergonzi swings through a program of tricky originals and ingeniously harmonized standards with unrelenting plan, deploying a richly textured tone, an authoritative time feel, and a storyteller's sense of how to unfold a narrative arc in notes and tones. Featuring Bruce Barth on piano.