Smokin' Java Album Credits

PLAYERS

• Darrell Grant, piano
• Donald Harrison, alto saxophone
• Joe Locke, vibraphone
• Bob Stata, bass
• Brian Blade, drums

LINER NOTES

(excerpt)
He hadn't seen himself as a West-Coaster initially. But he was tired of New York and it had just seemed like a good place to come for a pause. The music was good here. That surprised him. And the way the rain slowed everything down, made it easier to think. Still humming Fiddler's riff, Langston walked down the block of buildings that edged the town's old quarter. Skirting the careening skateboarders and cliques of mothers with strollers, he crossed into the square. From a nearby doorway wafted the strains of a vibraphone playing a Jerome Kern melody. Langston followed the music, stopping in front of a small antique shop. "Old Frills and New" read the sign in the window. He peered through the plate glass at the couple inside. The woman was carefully pouring out tea into two china cups, while her husband nimbly danced his broom around her, sweeping the floor of the little shop. "If I should lose you," the old man crooned along with the LP, "the stars would fall from the sky." The woman smiled at him, a fond smile that both acknowledged and belied their years together. As Langston watched, the husband held out his arms to her. She set down the teapot and slipped into his embrace. They began to dance. The scene reminded Langston of the black and white photos from the 30's, of ballrooms long since torn down. In the pictures they were alive with lights glittering, couples twirling to Ellington & Basie. Langston watched through the window as the couple gracefully shuffled around the shop, lost in a private pas de deux. "I should be so lucky," he thought.