Big Screen - Take One - Jersey Jazz

Presenting jazz in the format of a good piano trio is a wonderfully satisfying experience.  Ideally, there is a creative pianist up front, a bassist who is always there with the right selection of notes to support the pianist, and a drummer who keeps great time, adding just the right accents, but most importantly, they function as an organic unit, not just three individuals who are playing together.  Take One (Linn - 504) is an album by just such a group, a trio of British jazzmen who go by the moniker BIG SCREEN.  The members of the group are David Newton on piano, Tom Farmer on bass and Matt Skelton on drums.  For their initial recording, they are focused on tunes from the movies, but they are quite liberal in their definition of movie songs.  Only two were actually written for films, "Chariots of Fire" and "When Somebody Loves Me," a song from Toy Story 2 by Randy Newman.  There are six selections that were performed on the big screen, but were originally written for stage musicals, "Get Me to the Church on Time," "Heather on the Hill," "Hello Young Lovers," "Old Man River," "On the Street Where You Live" and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly."  The remaining song, "Bewitched," is from the television series of the same name.  Enough with the quibbling!  The performances of these songs by Big Screen are a joy to hear.  They are sometimes swinging and sometime contemplative, but always hold your attention in a most wonderful manner.  It will be interesting to hear takes two, three, four and on.