Cadence

The Review of Jazz & Blues: Creative improvised music

June, 2007

lf you're heavily into the music of Gil Evans then you should know Pete Levin. The veteran keyboardist was with the iconic arranger/composer for well over a decade. The same could be said of the semi-forgotten Jimmy Giuffre, with whom Levin spent a fruitful term of employment. In fact, two of the latter's compositions, "Sad Truth" and "Dragonfly", are included on Deacon Blues. For this latest endeavor, the synthesizer whiz returns to one of his primary loves, the organ, in this case a restored vintage Hammond with Leslie cabinet. For the most part Levin supplies his own bass lines except for four tracks which use his brother, fairly famous Rock bassist Tony. The well-known Danny Gottlieb handles drum chores on the majority of cuts while the gifted Mike DeMicco and string vet Joe Beck split lead guitar duties. Other than the Steely Dan title song, a Beach Boy ditty, the Eric Satie title, "Eclipse" from Demicco, the aforementioned Giuffre pair, and the standard "Mean To Me" (which proves these guys can go totally old school), the rest come from the pen of the leader, who seems to immensely enjoy this return to his roots. A nice diversion from an always interesting musician.