(SMS Jazz)

The venerable, and seemingly tireless, Mort Weiss continues to explore new combinations and musical connections. Never one to settle for the old formulas, on his latest he teams with pianist Bill Cunliffe for a fantastic product. Weiss, who is stellar as usual on clarinet, cedes a great deal of the floor to Cunliffe, who delivers with virtuoso solos on everything he plays. The two gentlemen are joined by the great Sam Most on flute. The production swings, of course, but also takes some interesting turns, mixing in a spoken word piece delivered by Peter Marx and a song co-written and performed by his grandson Anthony Weiss, who also plays guitar on the track. Contributing to the terrific band here are Roy McCurdy on drums, Ron Escheté on guitar, Chris Conner on bass and Scott Yanow, also on clarinet. The main menu of music on the project is courtesy of the likes of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and Anthony Newley, among others. As you’ll hear in the exuberant exhortations supporting his fellow musicians, Weiss clearly had as good a time making this recording, as you’ll have listening to it.