Four old pros create young jazz! These musicians are up to the task. They’re superbly attuned to each other — a quality that doesn’t necessarily come without great effort backed with solid skill and deep experience.

Jim Grantham’s quartet dates here have always started with a sound of surprise that can come as a shock to the unexpecting, as his colleagues hit hard and free to get their ears open and their musical intellects in sync.  Two solid sets proceed from there:  jazz classics from the bop, cool and hard bop eras, tunes by moderns like Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson, experimental and free form numbers, originals by the band members.

Pianist David Udolf, a highly regarded first call pianist, is the newest cog in the hand-built machine that leader Jim Grantham has crafted.  Bassist Jeff Neighbor and drummer Jack Dorsey have worked in this small group format with Jim for a number of years. Each of the four players on the bandstand today has several decades of high level professional work under his belt by now.

Jim Grantham plays from deep within the tradition of melodic lyricism—heavily influenced by such players as Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter. Jim has performed with Bobby McFerrin, George Cables, Eddie Moore, Mark Isham, Ed Kelly, Gaylord Birch, Frank Tusa and Calvin Keys, and has recorded with Jessica Williams and Eddie Henderson. He is also a well-known jazz educator (including a series of workshops in jazz theory and improvisation that he started at San Francisco’s legendary Keystone Korner in the late 1970s).  Jim is also the author of a much used, in-depth text on jazz improvisation.

You’re in for a high quality jazz ride if you make it to the bookshop this Sunday afternoon to hear the quartet.  Why would you want to do anything else?

Bright moments!