Trib Live Review: "Hudson City Suite"
‘Hudson City Suite‘
Scott Healy Ensemble (Hudson City)
It takes courage for a composer to refer to a work as “Ellington-inspired” because of the comparison it invites. But keyboardist-composer Scott Healy gets away with it because “Hudson City Suite” is well done. The nine-movement piece is titled after the post-Civil War name for part of New Jersey. The work uses an 11-piece band that sounds bigger. The group uses tasteful riffing behind solos to blend the large and small sounds. Muted trumpets make state
ments behind a bass solo on “Summit Avenue Conversation,” for instance. The piece rolls along from a swift “Central Trolley” to a gently cruising “Gaslight,” and the band hints at the sounds of Duke Ellington‘s, Count Basie‘s and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis groups. Not bad company to keep. The liner notes hint this was a 20-year project for Healy, and it seems worth the wait.
— Bob Karlovits
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