Jazz & Blues
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Man With A Horn Milestone When Wynton Marsalis headed a large jazz renaissance in the ’80s, the focus was on a revival of the past, along with a sophisticated presentation that found scores of young players dressed in Armani suits with great amounts of money and hype being heaped on them by the major record labels. Aside from the stuffiness still associated with concert hall presentations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, the large majority of today’s players have come to the realization that it’s the music that ultimately counts and saying something of your own, regardless of what stylistic genre you may work in, is what will move jazz forward. No player of his generation in recent memory has so firmly established his sound and reputation through dedication and focused study as has tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. Over the course of four albums apiece for Criss Cross Jazz and Delmark and two more with the collective One For All, Alexander has proven to be a no-nonsense player with a robust sound and approach that recalls the classic tenors but clearly comes from his own unique perspective. He possess a fluidity and fullness of sound throughout the entire range of the horn that is definitely impressive without being cold and clinical. Man With a Horn was originally released in Japan in 1997 and is now being issued here in the States by Milestone and it serves as a laconic example of just how developed Alexander is as a player. Working largely in a quartet with Cedar Walton, Dwayne Burno, and Joe Farnsworth on hand means that everything really rests on Alexander’s shoulders. It’s an open and revealing format that can leave lesser players behind in the dust but which seems to inspire this saxophonist. On three cuts we get Eric’s partners from the collective One For All , trumpeter Jim Rotondi and trombonist Steve Davis, and the results are no less engaging. Alexander’s choice of material is also appealing, highlighted by his own funky tribute to Eddie Harris, “Unsung Hero”, and Walton’s “Midnight Waltz” and “Fiesta Espanola”. It all adds up to a hard bop delight that adds considerably to Alexander’s growing body of venerable works. By Chris Hovan |