Over the years, the phrases "organ/tenor group," "tenor/organ group," and "organ/sax combo" have often been synonymous with soul-jazz. When soul-jazz fans hear the words "organ" and "tenor" in the same sentence, they immediately think of all things funky; they immediately think of Stanley Turrentine's work with Shirley Scott or Gene Ammons' encounters with Jack McDuff and Johnny Hammond Smith. But one shouldn't forget about the post-bop innovations of Larry Young, who moved organ groups beyond soul-jazz and paved the way for everyone from Barbara Dennerlein to John Medeski. And on this live album, one hears a tenor/organ trio that has nothing to do with soul-jazz and everything to do with post-bop. The tenor saxophonist is Eli Degibri (who is also heard on soprano sax) and the organist is Gary Versace; rounding out the threesome is drummer Obed Calvaire. This 74-minute CD was recorded in August 2007 at Louis 649, a small club in Lower Manhattan's Alphabet City section (which was notoriously dangerous in the 1970s and 1980s but became quite gentrified during New York City's Rudy Giuliani/Michael Bloomberg era). Degibri could have easily embraced a sax/bass/drums format at Louis 649 but the fact that he went the organ route instead was a good thing, because this release is a worthwhile example of a post-Jimmy Smith approach to tenor/organ jazz. The trio's performances are hardly groundbreaking by 2007 standards; Young's groups were doing this type of thing 40 years earlier. But the performances are solid, albeit derivative, on the Tin Pan Alley warhorses I Fall in Love Too Easily and Every Time We Say Goodbye as well as Degibri originals that include Shoohoo, Colin's Dream, and the moody Gypsy. Although not a five-star masterpiece, Live at Louis 649 is a respectable document of Degibri's sax/organ encounters in downtown Manhattan. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		NY-TLV-NY
2		Every Time We Say Goodbye
3		Gypsy
4		Pum-Pum
5		I Fall in Love Too Easily
6		Shoohoo
7		Colin's Dream

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