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  Jive at Five

Forbidden Fruit
2001 Jive at Five
SQ Issue:  Fall 2001, Volume 11, Issue 4

 Jive at Five is:
Tom T. Ball – straight up bass; David Raffenaud – piano, Hammond organ, additional keyboards; Mark Shrock – electric guitars, fiddle, vocals; Jack Wilkin – drums, percussion, harmonica, vocals; Frank Youngman – Newson archtop guitar, trumpet, vocals.  Special guests:  Arthur “Gene” Harris – tenor and alto saxophones; Daniel J. Giacobassi – tenor and baritone saxophones, flute.

“We consider ourselves a swing band, although we never seemed to fit the image associated with the tom-tom induced swing daddy-o craze of the late 20th century. Our approach has always been to present a danceable list of musical gems and obscure nuggets mined from the swinging singers and mighty instrumental soloists of the swing era. In time-honored tradition, we keep the music swinging and attempt to keep people out on the dance floor all night long.” – Website Release.

This is Jive at Five’s second release and a good follow up to their debut CD, Swingin’ Standard Time.  Forbidden Fruit lives up to their promise of musical gems and obscure nuggets as well as a nice original tune by Mark Shrock.

They kick off the CD with a great Louis Prima tune called Whistle Stop that is fun with an easy swing to it.  It really gets you ready for the laid back swingin’ style of Jive at Five.   It includes great piano work.  Something you will find throughout the CD.

Then they sail through great gems like Straighten Up and Fly Right, The Mills Brothers, and Rosetta.  All done with their smooth laid back style.  All very, very danceable.  Straighten Up and Fly Right and The Mills Brothers stand out the best and again have fantastic piano solos and a nice muted trumpet solo in the latter.

They introduce their first original, The Perfect Match, at the perfect time.  It fits in nicely with the aforementioned songs and is once again, very danceable.  There is a nice, easy flow to the song and they do a great job blending solos throughout it.

There are a couple ballads mixed in that got me a little disinterested:  If I Had You and The Waves Whisper Your Name.  But they also have some harder swingin’ tunes with The Finer Things in Life and Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ but Trash.

This CD will give you plenty of dancing for the buck.  Jive at Five’s fun and relaxed demeanor comes across well in this recording.   You’ll enjoy it for years to come.

 Bottom Line:  To buy or not to buy…..BUY, If you do, here’s how: