Joey Cavaseno - Portrait of the Beast (1992) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Grooving, hard-swinging Bebop with the last of the great organists, the now late, great Bobby Forester, recorded live in 1994 in Brookhaven Jazz Festival, in Long Island, NY. Alto Saxist Joey 'G-Clef' Cavaseno, of Illinois Jacquet and Panama Francis fame, was becoming one of the top straight ahead, hard-swinging alto saxophonists. Also featured, are guitar great William Ash, and legendary drummer of Ruth Brown fame, Tootsie Bean. This set swings ridiculously hard from top to bottom, and the group's enthusiasm is contagious. A Rare Gem!

Joey InchG-ClefInch Cavaseno has had a storied career in jazz music, as well as a parallel career in the hip-hop and alternative music universe, under the moniker G-Clef da Mad Komposa. In 1993, on this , we are able to hear a band that attempted to unify concepts to form one combo that would rock any venue something both soulful and swinging, that could be accessible to any audience. That project would be called The Jazz Gangstas. For whatever reason, the germ of a classic musical idea was born, but never quite came into fruition. Cavaseno decided to hold a rehearsal/demo session at Foreclosure Studio, which was headquarters to his Hip-Hop InchlabInch (studio). He had this idea that he would procure the most soulful and swinging cats he knew Bobby on organ, Chris Flory on guitar (who he knew from Scott Hamilton's group), Brian Sledge (who had long been associated with him, after being introduced by vibraphonist/composer Tom Haas), and last but not least the great Kenny Bolds, on drums.

Spangalang is a word that Cavaseno and his comrade-at-arms, guitarist Peter Bernstein but often use in reference to swinging music that really had that greasy edge, and that's the name of this Cavaseno-lead ensemble was born. As a straight ahead, jazz quintet, Spangalang perform various intimate jazz performances around the tri-state New York area back in the early 1990s, around the same time InchG-ClefInch was pursuing his career as a hip-hop musician. Sometime in 1991, at Michael Brorby's Acoustic Recording studio in Brooklyn, an albums worth of music was recorded with Spangalang. This music has never seen the light of day until now, as Cavaseno recently uncovered old metal cassette tapes, did you leave converted and then remastered using the latest technology. Featured on this outing are nothing less than the top tier of mainstream jazz players such as Peter Bernstein and William Ash on guitars, John Webber on bass, Andy Watson on drums and a young 21 year Brad Mehldau on piano.