PAPATAMUS REDUX

SELF PRODUCED (RELEASED NOVEMBER 7, 2025

Eighty-one years after his recording debut, 44 years following his last recording session and 100 years since his birth, the music of John Haley “Zoot” Sims comes to life on Dream Dancing, Celebrating Zoot Sims at 100. Like any Sims performance, the music of Scott Silbert and his quartet of Robert Redd on piano, Amy Shook on bass and Chuck Redd on drums is melodically rich, unassumingly timeless and unapologetically swinging. Silbert, who spent 15 years as a woodwind player and arranger in the U.S. Navy Band, does an admirable job of capturing the warmth and soul of Sims on a set of familiar and some obscure standards as well as one original. Silbert floats over the bossa nova beat of Cole Porter’s “Dream Dancing” and Harry Warren’s “Shadow Waltz.” His ballad playing on familiar tunes such as “Deep in a Dream,” You Go to My Head” and “All Too Soon” is pure and honest as is his playing on under recoded ballads such as “It’s That Ole Devil Called Love,” “Low Life” and “Round My Old Deserted Farm.” He and the band swing hard on up-tempo numbers such as J.C. Johnson’s “Louisiana” and J.J. Johnson’s “Wee Dot.”  Like Sims, Silbert shows his soprano sax prowess on ‘Someday Sweetheart” as well as his ability to play the blues on a composition he wrote in honor of Sim’s wife — “Blues for Louise.” The rhythm section of Redd, Shook and Redd are in synch with Silbert much like folks such as Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Rowles, George Mraz, Jake Hanna and Mel Lewis who supported Sims on his numerous recordings. One suggestion for volume 2 of Celebrating Zoot Sims at 100 would be to include some of the memorable tunes Sims wrote or tunes he made famous as a member of the Woody Herman Band or working with Al Cohn or Gerry Mulligan. Although Silbert’s Dream Dancing, Celebrating Zoot Sims at 100 is a pleasant way to remember the warm sound and style Sims brought to jazz, a more meaningful way to celebrate Sim’s 100^th years is to pick up one of the more than 100 recordings he appeared on during his four decades as a melodically rich, unassumingly timeless and unapologetically swinging jazz musician.

BOTTOM LINE:  Saxophonist Scott Silbert pays tribute to Zoot Sim’s centennial year with Dream Dancing, Celebrating Zoot Sims at 100. Just like Sims, the music of Silbert and his quartet is both soulful and sensual. During his 40-year career, Sims was the epitome of swing, and so is this CD.