Though well known as a composer and a stalwart of the Chicago jazz scene, trumpeter Markus Rutz owns one advantage that trumps everything else: he sounds good, with a warm, buttery tone and clear skill when it comes to playing bop jazz on fifth LP Storybook. Fortunately, he also knows how to write a tune, at least within the realm he’s chosen to inhabit. Leading a solid band consisting of saxophonist Sharel Cassity, pianist Adrian Ruiz, drummer Kyle Swan, and alternating bassists Samuel Peters and Kurt Schweitz, Rutz knocks out tracks that sound like lost classics, with accessible heads, sharp improvisation, and near-perfect swing. Songs like “Third Coasting,” “Right at Home,” and the ballad “Mr. E” work their mojo so well that when Rutz slips tunes by Kenny Dorham, Mal Waldron, Joe Henderson and the underrated pianist and composer Lil Hardin (ex-wife of Louis Armstrong), they all sound like the products of a single musical mind. Well-crafted and melodic, Storybook comes off like a rediscovered Blue Note album from the sixties.
