Ah! How nice to hear a tenor saxist not under the shadow of John Coltrane. Dan Wilensky has a nice rich and thick sound, and uses it well on this modern hard bop disc with Mark Soskin/p, Dean Johnson/b, Tony Moreno/dr an dRuss Johnson/tp on this collecton of originals and jazz standards. The quintet tracks of “Hand in Hand” and the title tune show a nice macho muscular tone, while Johnson’s trumpet is glistening on “Falling In Love With Love. “ As with most big toned tenors, Wilensky sounds best on ballads, and his treatment of “Lament” is just what you want from him: BBQ sauce just dripping off the meat which barely hangs on to the bone. This is red meat for jazz fans.
