“THE SONG IN OUR SOUL,” TIMELESS SWING by “THE PALOMAR TRIO”: DAN LEVINSON, MARK SHANE, KEVIN DORN (Turtle Bay Records)

To me, this music feels like home. Or, since I am writing this post in December, a medically-approved and completely-necessary antidote to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and Johnny Mathis.

I first encountered Dan Levinson, tenor saxophone and clarinet; Mark Shane, piano; Kevin Dorn, drums, in mid-2004, and twenty years have not dimmed my admiration for them and the music they create.

The object of my affection here is a new CD from the cornucopia that is Turtle Bay Records, THE SONG IN OUR SOUL, which is both spectacular and understated. It does everything right.

You can listen here — and you should.

Why this enthusiasm?

First, there is the repertoire: a double handful of songs that were once popular but have been overshadowed by more obvious choices by most bands. Not only do they have the finest associations: Jimmie Noone, Alex Hill, Willard Robison, Bobby Hackett, Ed Hall, Bing Crosby, the Boswell Sisters . . . but this isn’t dusty museum work. The listener can be safe in knowing that no records were copied in this endeavor.

And, to some, the instrumentation might suggest a modern recreation of the Benny Goodman Trio, but I beg to differ. Dan, Mark, and Kevin revere Benny, Teddy, and Gene, but they are strong-willed individuals with solid identities: they are themselves, something that brings great pleasure. And although they can swing with great lightness and delicacy (EL RADO SCUFFLE), they also can manifest a gutty forcefulness that would do justice to a much larger group (WAKE UP, CHILL’UN, WAKE UP! and IN A SHANTY IN OLD SHANTY TOWN). And there’s romantic Swing (THE DAY YOU CAME ALONG and SWEETHEART O’MINE.) No lace-making here, no library books.

If I had to find a corollary, I would think of the Verve session by Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson, and Jo Jones, or the great tenor-plus-rhythm records made for Keynote and other small labels in the mid-Forties. I want to especially commend Dan Levinson’s tenor playing, reminding me of people who should be more celebrated, Eddie Miller and Boomie Richman among them: lyrical and easy, with its own singing eloquence. His clarinet playing can be a touch wilder — can we say Tesch?

Mark Shane is a whole-hearted energized Swing orchestra, no matter what the tempo. He has a joyous belief in THE POCKET, that magical place where the bouyancy of the beat lives. And he makes lovely melodies that respect the originals while suggesting other places the composers might have visited on vacation.

Kevin Dorn’s four-bar introductions are irresistible: he could get the dancers on the floor in seconds. His soloing speaks to the great melodic drummers of the Swing Era and beyond, and his accompaniment is a continuing lesson in quietly intense support. The sound he gets out of his drum kit is dance music in itself, which reminds me that I should commend Michael Perez-Cisneros for the remarkably lovely sound of this CD, a sound I don’t hear all that often on discs.

Something else commendable: these three masterful players are friends, and their brotherly pleasure in playing together elevates this recording beyond another “day in the studio.” Each of them has written an essay about the session, making the liner notes a pleasure to read.

Even though I can’t offer a video record of what happened during the recording session, I can hear them grinning at each other.

You will grin also.

And here’s just one reason:

May your happiness increase!