Artist: Esmond Selwyn, George Haslam & Steve Kershaw
Title: SHaK
Cat Number: SLAMCD321
Year released: 2006
Format: CD & all digital platforms
Barcode: 5028386032120
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The unorthodox jazz trio SHaK – guitarist Esmond Selwyn, saxophonist George Haslam and bassist Steve Kershaw – perform a great selection of jazz standards that are given some refreshing arrangements and inventive harmonies, plus some adventurous improvising.
The album includes two solo tracks by Esmond Selwyn, as well as two sax/bass duos, plus an original composition by Haslam, which is played by the full trio.
Esmond Selwyn: guitar
George Haslam: baritone saxophone
Steve Kershaw: bass
“This is a fine trio that use their instrumentation, hollow-body electric guitar, bari sax and acoustic bass, just right. Selwyn has a warm, round tone similar to the tone of Pat Martino. Kershaw does a great job of slapping that bass to provide the rhythm section role. I dig the way he strums his bass rhythmically on “El Manicero”, creating an exotic, hypnotic groove and then adding a lush bowed bass line below. “Yardbird Suite” is taken at a brisk pace and both Esmond and George take great solos. Selwyn occasionally reminds me of Joe Pass with the way he embellishes these standards with elegance and consistently creative but restrained sparks.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
“”Winetka” and “El Manicero”, aka “The Peanut Vendor”, are great fun, it’s interesting to hear Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite” on the big sax. Haslam’s hop-skip-and-stagger tune, “Morning After”, is a nice piece of neo-bop, and “Blue Monk” prompts a succulent sax solo. You’ll be glad to know that “Alfie” is not the well-worn Bacharach song tacked on over the closing credits of the celebrated Britflick, but the suitably swaggering “Alfie’s Theme” from Sonny Rollins’s excellent score, sounding as good on baritone as it did from the composer’s rich tenor.” – Barry Witherden, Jazz Review