One of the true throwbacks of the tenor sax, Eric Alexander possesses a tone and style rarely heard these days of screeches and navel gazing, preferring the classic sound and feel of players like Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and George Coleman. This album, however, has Alexander changing over to the alto sax with his longtime trio of David Hazeltine/p, John Webber/b and Joe Farnsworth/b, and also with a set of strings for most of the tunes. Alexander’s alto is so full of warmth that it almost sounds like a tenor most of the time. The strings serve as more of an accent than a dominance, elegant around the gentle swing of “Embraceable You” while hinting and Bernard Herrman on pieces like “To Love and Be Loved” and the melancholy “Anita”. Alexander is masterful here, lyrical around Hazeltines’ piano on “All My Tomorrows” and taking the baton from Webber on “Too Late Now”. The album is bookended by two takes of the shuffling “Blues For Diane” that is red meat for Alexander fans, who will take him in any setting and with any saxophone. A rich side road.