Blessed with one of todays biggest sounds, tenor saxist Eric Alexander goes (mostly) into a trio format with bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Johnathan Blake for a “live” recording from a pair of gigs at the Jazz Gallery back in 2018. His sound fills the room, and there’s plenty of space to fill without the piano as on the rubato’d post bopper “Luquitas” and the rumbling “Mars” which has Blake on the mallets to create an open and somber atmosphere. Weiss’ bowing bass on “Magyar” leads into a hard driving swinger of “Second Impression” that lets everyone stretch out a bit. There is definitely a piano present on lovely impressionisitic “Corazon Perdido” that has Alexander hovering like a cloud, and even better, as with all things big toned and tenor’d, the ballad “Big Richard” is a bel canto delight. This is Alexander’s most adventurous outing to date, and he stretches his boundaries well. He’s coming to the Moss Theater in Santa Monica at the end of the month. Check out the site at www.jazzbakery.org for tickets.