Benny Golson's "Five Spot After Dark" receives a smoldering treatment on Joey DeFrancesco's 2012 album Wonderful! Wonderful!, with three soloists contributing to an extended performance that mines the minor blues for maximum dramatic impact. Guitarist Larry Coryell opens with seven choruses of blues-drenched improvisation over the 12-bar form in C minor at 176 beats per minute, his playing combining the grit of his jazz-rock roots with sophisticated harmonic awareness. DeFrancesco follows with seven equally compelling organ choruses, his Hammond B3 tone ranging from whispered drawbar settings to full-throttle Leslie speaker roar. Drummer Jimmy Cobb, whose career spans from Miles Davis to this late-period collaboration, contributes three choruses of drum solo that demonstrate the melodic drumming approach he refined over decades of performance at the highest level. Golson's composition, first recorded by Curtis Fuller in 1959, is a cornerstone of the hard-bop repertoire, its dark harmonic color and bluesy melody providing an ideal framework for the trio's collective explorations. The track captures the intimate interplay of the organ-guitar-drums trio format, a configuration that DeFrancesco has championed throughout his career.
