Califournia Quartet
Released
On this session guitarist and composer Doug MacDonald achieves something quite unusual: a warm, swinging straight-ahead jazz album that is steeped in tradition but never sounds hackneyed or cliched. He manages to write a blues composition that is difficult to recognize as such, and a gentle jazz waltz with a chord progression that is difficult to follow. But his sound is never willful or unapproachable — it’s always sweet and lovely.