More than one jazz artist has told me that his goal on stage is to recreate the joy and intensity of church music. Saxist and flute player Will Boyd does that in spades as he takes on the Great American Sunday Hymnal and gives it extra spiritual muscle with support from Bobby Lyle/org-p, Kelle Jolly voc-uk, Gregory Tardy/ts, Larry Vincent-David Bivens/g, David Becher/b, Kenneth Brown/dr and Kevin Krapf/perc.
While most of the tunes are spirit-filled instrumentals, on a couple of tracks Jolly gets the place rolling on inspired takes of “Every Time I Feel The Spirit” as well as the strutting “Marching to Freedom Land” and closing up the service with the anthem “We Shall Overcome” accompanied by the leader’s rich soprano. The band gives a hip Crescent City beat to the fervent “…Spirit” while delving into a deep and rich modal mood for “Go Down Moses.” Boyd’s baritone sax takes you to a Memphis house of worship for “August Eighth” while his bass clarinet is a balm in Gilead for the flowing “Deep River.” Boyd brings his alto sax into a trio mode with accompaniment by Lyle on organ and Brown’s drum for a gospel beat of “Keep Your Hand On The Plow” with the whole band shuffling down the pews on June Teenth.” Stick around for the Bible study!