Phil Woods Live

AMG Review of Phil Woods Live

Ken Dryden
All Music Guide

For a brief time, Phil Woods led a formidable group that included guitarist Harry Leahey, pianist Mike Melillo, bassist Steve Gilmore, drummer Bill Goodwin, and percussionist Alyrio Lima, though this particular band was never documented extensively. The nine tracks on this Novus CD were condensed from the Grammy-winning two-record set Live from the Showboat, but four other tracks are unjustly omitted from this reissue. But the music is pure magic. Woods is in terrific form on alto sax, but he has a few surprises in store. Woods and Leahey open "A Sleepin' Bee" with a lush duet, though the setting switches to brisk op with the entry of the rhythm section. Leahey's "Rain Dance" is a tense samba that showcases Woods in a rare appearance on soprano sax, an instrument he plays with finesse. Leahey also arranged Django Reinhardt's "Django's Castle" as a soft ossa nova; while his playing is more conservative than its composer is, it is masterful in its own way. The extended workout of Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" is very aggressive and risk-taking, with no slips. Woods is back on soprano sax for the equally wild roller coaster ride through "I'm Late," as well as a rapid-fire take of Ettore Stratta's ossa nova "High Clouds." The band concludes with a full version of "How's Your Mama," Woods' well-known signoff theme. Sadly, this terrific music has been badly mistreated by RCA and its subsidiary. The original two-record set was deleted not long after it won a Grammy, and this 1990 condensed CD reissue was barely in print over a year.