A while to release certainly but with Rob Barron the secret weapon on piano, tenorist Fraser Smith's Tip Top is a toe tapping prospect going on the teased out hors d'oeuvre unveiled this week from the saxophonist's quartet. Smith you may recall is on Joe Webb's rousing Summer Chill. Issuing label Ubuntu in their latest panegyric see Smith as a Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet and Wardell Gray influencee. Birmingham-born player Smith is an alumnus of Cardiff's Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and London's Trinity Laban.
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