A classy, hard swinging baritone player, Pete Lukas channels bop heroes such as Pepper Adams and Ronnie Cuber with authority. Arrival is his tribute to the baritone legacy, also tipping its hat to some of bop’s best writers (Quincy Jones, Oscar Pettiford and Lee Morgan are included). Lukas solos impressively, as do his A-list backing band featuring brilliant pianist Leon Greening and trumpeter Steve Fishwick, excellent on the mid-tempo Sweet and Lovely.
The results make this hard bop session easy to recommend.
Tom Barlow – Jazzwise Magazine
Arrival is a very fine album indeed, Pete Lukas has a wonderful full sound on the baritone and negotiates his way through this un-hackneyed material with great aplomb.The session swings from start to finish and features an all star rhythm of Leon Greening, Dominic Howles and Steve Brown, with front line duties shared by superb trumpet stylist Steve Fishwick.
The baritone can be a cumbersome horn in the wrong hands, but there are no such problems here! Lukas can swing on up tempo numbers like Del Sasser but also caress a ballad like Sweet and Lovely with a beautiful tender sound.
Pepper Adams would have approved whole-heartedly!
Alan Barnes
“Lukas has undeniable strengths. Luminescence, an appropriate take-off point, finds him swinging in, keeping to the groove and letting the melody saturate with its presence.”
“Lukas navigates Muezzin”, the Pepper Adams composition, with dexterity. He blows the hard bop tune with ferocity without letting the pace slip pass by some interesting ideas.”
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