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Still Swingin' by the Mike Longo Trio

My first thought when listening to Still Swinging was that somebody screwed up the cover art.

I spend a good bit of my youth on tire swings and splashing through Louisiana's bayous. Not once in all my years of swinging and splashing do I remember hearing a piano-based jazz trio accompanying me.

It's just not the kind of music that goes with kids playing on a tire swing. So, when I saw the cover art, then listened to the opening tracks, my first thought genuinely was that somebody had designed the cover without bothering to listen to the music.

A strange thing happened about two songs into the CD, though. I began to realize this particular effort from pianist Mike Longo, bassist Ben Brown and drummer Ray Mosca does go with an evening on a tire swing.

While the idea itself is incongruous, the feel is natural. From start to finish, this collection of old standard and original compositions captures the sheer joy of jazz. It as mellow as an autumn evening but at the same time the Mike Longo trio has infused the music with drive. You can't sit still and listen to this. It makes you want to move.

Mike Longo's on words best describe the effect he was aiming for:

"Although the term 'free jazz' has come to mean something much different than this, the thought struck me that there is something to be said for jazz that makes th people listening to it, as well as the people playing it, feel free," Longo writes in his liner notes. "I wanted to make a contemporary CD that returns to a jazz concept that swings and causes the gladdening of the human hear."

He's accomplished that. Included on the CD are classics such as "All or Nothing," "How High the Moon," "It Never Entered My Mind," "Oleo" and "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" in addition to original compositions such as "The Night is Love" and "Bones."

Would I listen to this CD while playing on a tire-swing in the Mississippi Delta?

Not a chance.

But as I slipped the CD back into it's jewel case, I felt like a kid who'd just spend a long lazy afternoon playing on his favorite swing.

Suddenly, that cover art doesn't seem to strange.

You can listen to clips from Still Swingin' here.

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