2000
Live at Rocco

1. Ain't Nothin' 'Nu 7:37
2. Kingston 10:37
3. Lakeside 7:49
4. Unknown Flowers 9:30
5. Hope 7:47
6. Quirk of Fate 7:02
7. Crepuscule with Nellie 5:07
8. Fubar 12:49

Recorded live at Rocco, a great jazz club on Beverly Glen in Bel Air, CA run by Rocco Somazzi in the '90's and early '00s. It is now the location of Vibrato, a jazz club run by Herb Alpert.

Bill Cunliffe - piano
Clay Jenkins - trumpet
Chuck Manning - tenor sax
Alex Iles - trombone
Jeff D'Angelo - bass
Joe La Barbera - drums

Los Angeles-based Bill Cunliffe has long had a strong reputation for his fine piano solos. This CD features him as a bandleader, arranger, and composer too. Cunliffe heads a top-notch sextet/septet also featuring trumpeter Clay Jenkins, Chuck Manning on tenor, trombonist Alex Iles, bassist Jeff D'Angelo, drummer Joe LaBarbera, and guest flutist Holly Hofmann. The band performs Thad Jones' "Ain't Nothin' Nu," Thelonious Monk's "Crepuscule With Nellie," and six Cunliffe originals. The music is advanced hard bop (or post-bop), the arrangements are just unpredictable enough to keep one guessing, and the solos are consistently rewarding. Bill Cunliffe has recorded one rewarding CD after another since the mid-'90s. This disc continues the trend. -Scott Yanow