Limited to 150 sealed 180g LP individually numbered fold-out cover with hype sticker. Michael Kanan is one of the quiet authorities of the New York mainstream, a pianist whose touch and harmonic clarity have made him a first call for singers and a trusted partner to players such as Kurt Rosenwinkel and Lee Konitz. He works squarely in the lineage of the great accompanists, more interested in line and feel than in display, and that sensibility sets the tone for the whole session.
The trio he meets is among the strongest to come out of the north of England in recent years. Alex Fisher plays tenor with a warm, songful tone; Elliot Roffe holds the bottom on double bass; Simon Henry drives from the drums with an easy, swinging touch. Joel Stedman completes the lineup. Across the record the group moves between readings of the Great American Songbook, the album borrowing its title from the Gershwin standard worn smooth by a century of interpreters, and original writing of their own, the standards and the new material sitting comfortably side by side.
Recorded close and live in the room, Love Walked In has the unforced intimacy of musicians playing for each other rather than for the tape. It is straight-ahead jazz made without nostalgia, the kind of cross-generational exchange that rarely gets documented and almost never finds its way to vinyl. Jazzaggression issue it as a one-off. Not to be missed.
