From Amazon.com
Panamanian bassist Alex Blake has provided the musical pulse for such artists as Randy Weston, Pharoah Sanders, Dizzy Gillespie, and even Astrud Gilberto and Manhattan Transfer. Here, Blake steps into the spotlight to lead an upbeat live session where he's backed by tenorman Pharoah Sanders, pianist John Hicks, drummer Victor Jones, and percussionist Neil Clark. Sanders sounds particularly good here, playing with a kind of fire that's often missing from his own dates. Blake plays up-front throughout, pushing the music and forcing the players to keep up with his galloping lines and tricky asides, and he even indulges himself with a wild solo version of the Beatles' "Little Help" on electric bass. The band, on the other hand, is at their cookin' best on closer "Mystery of Love," which goes from a bass and percussion intro to a powerful groove, before finishing with a stirring chant. Certainly something to be proud of, this is a very good album from a musician who has spent years working in the shadows of the rhythm section.
--Tad Hendrickson