The title A Ride To The Other Side isn't intended to mean anything deep, but nevertheless the music is a thrill ride to the side of that soulful funky acoustic jazz of the sixties. Trumpet player Derrick Gardner is firmly behind the wheel driving that bus.

Derrick Gardner, the forty-two year-old son of accomplished musicians with PhD's, earned his stripes playing in ensembles such as the Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster's Loud Minority Band and Harry Connick Jr.'s Big Band. For the last seventeen years, Gardner has led a band of his own, a septet he christened The Jazz Prophets.

While the piano, bass and drum chairs have changed over the years, the trumpet-sax-trombone horn section has always respectively consisted of Gardner, Rob Dixon, and Derrick's brother Vincent. Nowadays, Anthony Wonsey mans the piano, Rodney Whitaker holds down the bass and Donald Edwards handles the drums (Kevin Kaiser helps out on percussion when needed).

Despite The Jazz Prophets being such a long-running going concern, they didn't record an album until 2005's Slim Goodie. A mere three years later comes their second effort, A Ride To The Other Side, from the nascent Owl Studios label.

From the first listen, though, it sounds more like the Blue Note label---and I mean the old Blue Note label--- where even on an average day, hot blowing, memorable jazz was being laid to wax with regularity. Gardner and his crew bring that spirit alive again on A Ride To The Other Side. With nine out of ten tracks composed by band members and no standards at all, the album sounds fresh even as it hewns closely to tradition. It's roughly akin to a long lost Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers record being discovered in Blue Note's vaults; one recorded with the classic Shorter/Fuller/Hubbard lineup. Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley also figure in prominently in their funky, no-nonsense sound.

With every tune possessing a unique character and striking a perfect balance between groove and gritty technique, it's nearly everything you can ask for. Having not forgotten his stint in Basie's Orchestra (or Connick's) Gardner and his Jazz Prophets swing and swing hard.
These guys don't let up on their mission from beginning to end, and each song has something worth highlighting, but three tunes provides a good sampling of the Prophets' deep bag of tricks: