Alley Cats

Since the start of his career in the mid-1950s, pianist Gene Harris has been stereotyped as a soul-jazz pianist by virtue of his influential work with the Three Sounds, which helped define the genre until the group's breakup in 1970. But Harris's playing, while enormously soulful, funky, and gospel-flavored, has always been much more than just that one style. Recorded live in December 1998, Alley Cats captures his topnotch band live in full flight at Seattle's Jazz Alley with guests Red Holloway on tenor sax, Ernie Watts on alto sax, Jack McDuff on organ, and Harris's daughter Niki on vocals. The opening cut, a funkified version of the Crusaders' "Put It Where You Want It," is what listeners have come to expect from Harris, a rollicking workout that shows off his blues-inflected playing to delightful effect. From there the album reveals some of the pianist's other colors, from the Afro-Caribbean beat of "Magic Lady" to Benny Golson's down-home "Blues March" and Watts's bebop tip to Charlie Parker, "Bird's Idea." Jack McDuff's solo on Harris's swinging "Walkin' with Zach," and Niki Harris's moving rendition of "You've Changed" only further the evidence that these were indeed a couple of red-hot nights in Seattle. --Ezra Gale