If you haven’t been following Jon Lampley’s solo work over the past year, now’s your time to start. The latest instalment from the Late Show’s trumpeter (also known for playing in Cory Wong’s big band as well as the jazz-funk group, Huntertones) is an energetic and vibrant record titled C Selection. Despite the dismissive connotations of the name, Lampley’s new track has everything you could ask for in a live jazz record.
The track comes as a follow up single to Lampley’s Grammy Nominated album Night Service: Live at LunÀtico, which came out earlier this year. Curiously, it seems to have been recorded in the same session(s) as the tracks heard on the full album and yet was omitted from the main release, hidden away from public channels until now. Goodness knows why. Release strategy will likely have something to do with it I suppose. Either way, I am glad we can hear it now.
The first thing to note is how perfectly the room is captured in the recording. Getting a sense of the space and the people that occupy it is scarcely an issue with live recordings but balancing the ambience with the clarity of the music is a tricky task. whoever recorded/mixed this project did it very well. The next thing to say is that the music actually suits the liveness of the recording. Not all live recordings by formidable artists have music that sounds like it was meant to be played live. I am often left quietly disappointed at some “live” records, which sound like they may as well have been recorded in a studio, with isolation booths, DI’d instruments, and no audience sound. That’s not to say that C Selection sounds unpolished. It absolutely bears all the hallmarks of a professional recording with a performance from acclaimed musicians at the top of their game.
However, the listed musicians are not the only musical contributors. The audience play a crucial role throughout this track – and not just in the clink of their glasses, cheers and shouts. The call and response between the instruments and the audience’s voices is at the core of the composition and the communality of it makes you want to jump into the recording and be there with them. Alas, we would not all fit in the narrow space of the LunÀtico on Halsey Street in Brooklyn, NYC (not to mention the travel costs or temporal restrictions of going across the pond from Waxing Lyrical HQ in NCL to NYC, to be at a live session that occurred months ago).
Beyond the recording style and compositional decisions, the recording also features a blistering solo from Lampley himself, as well dynamic solos from the alto sax, piano, and drums. Just everything you could ask for and exactly what you need if you’re looking for a live jazz record that came out in the past few weeks.
Waxing Lyrical 