Dave Bennett - Don't Be That Way (2013) FLAC

Clarinetist Dave Bennett's Don't Be That Way is a throwback album, but it's not a carbon copy of what's come before. Bennett certainly finds inspiration in the work of past masters, driving down the highways and byways that have been paved by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and others, but he's willing to look at their music with a fresh set of eyes; he's a centrist, but not a complete traditionalist. He'll occasionally throw a curve ball on a well-known tune, as demonstrated on the Brazilian-coated title track, but the ball always goes back over the plate in the end, locking in to some form of widely established and accepted practice.

Goodman, more than any other figure, is the influence that hovers over this date. Bennett delights in interpreting several key pieces from Goodman's repertoire, from the immortal "Sing, Sing, Sing" to the bleak-and-beautiful "Goodbye" to the fun-filled "Slipped Disc," and he even resembles the King Of Swing, with a serious bespectacled face and firmly parted hair. The similarities stop there though, as Bennett's tone and timbre bear little resemblance to Goodman's clarion call clarinet sound. Bennett has a more soothing-and-streamlined sound—not the same as, but in the realm of Ken Peplowski and Eddie Daniels—and it charms the ear throughout.