Junior Mance - Floating Jazz Festival Trio 1995

Release date 1996

Recorded on the S.S. Norway during the 1995 Floating Jazz Festival, this outing reunites pianist Junior Mance with bassist Keter Betts (they both played together with Dinah Washington in the 1950s) and his regular drummer of the period, Jackie Williams. Mance has always been a superior blues pianist but one who can also play very effective bop and swing, always with his own brand of soul. On two of the selections, a medium-tempo "Three Little Words" and "Blues Alley," tenor saxophonist Benny Golson guests, fitting in very easily with the group. With nearly half of the selections being blues at a variety of tempos and the remainder of the program (taken from three different sets) being superior standards, Junior Mance and his sidemen are heard throughout in enthusiastic and swinging form.

AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow