The Feeling of Jazz

TV viewers of a certain age will remember Tommy Newsom as the stand-in leader for the Tonight Show Orchestra during the Johnny Carson days — the stoic, taciturn foil to Doc Severinson’s flamboyant bandleader persona. Newsom was also, of course, a magnificent saxophonist (you didn’t get to join that band by being a hack), and on this album he teams up with the equally fine reedman Ken Peplowski for a program of standards (plus one Newsom original and one by pianist Ben Aronov). Leading a tight quartet of sidemen, Newsom and Peplowski deliver a solid program of straight-ahead jazz that will satisfy any traditionalist.