Trip to Moscow

The first major Russian jazz musician to make an impression in the United States, Valery Ponomarev has always had an attractive tone, a swinging style, and a strong interest in keeping the hard bop legacy of Clifford Brown alive. He played as regularly as possible in the Soviet Union, recording for the Melodiya label and appearing at jazz festivals until defecting in 1973. Four years later, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, a perfect outlet for his style, from 1977-1980; he recorded nine albums with Blakey for such labels as Roulette, Timeless, and Concord. Ponomarev has since freelanced, usually leading his own quintets and recording extensively for Reservoir. For his second Reservoir set, trumpeter Valery Ponomarev performs six of his originals, which are dedicated to different aspects of the Russian homeland from where he had emigrated 15 years earlier, as well as Irving Berlin's "The Best Thing for You." Despite the unfamiliar material (none of the trumpeter's tunes became standards), the music is mostly strictly hard bop, quite accessible and hard-swinging. Ponomarev is joined by the John Coltrane-inspired tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Dennis Irwin, and drummer Victor Jones for this excellent outing.