I'd been looking for Jimmy Knepper's 1987 CD "Cunningbird" from SteepleChase for awhile when I found it in LA in November because Knepper, more than once, has caught my ear on Mingus disks. There's some Mingus in this quintet session ("Languid," for example), and some Ellington as well (because there was a lot of Ellington in what Mingus did), which is natural, I suspect, when you have Mingus' trombonist of choice leading and his drummer of choice, Dannie Richmond, in the lineup, too.
Knepper gets trumpet-like licks out of his 'bone, in diversity if not tone, and then you have Al Cohn on tenor sax, Roland Hanna piano and George Mraz bass, each outstanding here. All the compositions are Knepper's and the mix is nice, including foot-tapping numbers like "Just Tonight," with tasty solos and interplay by Knepper and Cohn. Likewise on the Latin-inflected ballad "Noche Triste," which Hanna, Mraz and Richmond underscore marvelously. The title track is blues drenched and Sir Roland does his best Sunnyland Slim on it. A gem.
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