This is the fourth album I’ve heard by Daniel Bennett, who’s always carrying around with him at least three woodwinds to his gigs and albums. This one not only has him playing alto sax (mostly), flute and clarinet, but he’s also heard on guitar and keyboards (what’s union scale for this?) along with a simpatico team of pianist Jason Yeager, drummer Koko Bermejo and electric bassist Kevin Hailey.
On alto sax, Bennett has a clear and cirrus cloud sound, akin to mid period Art Pepper or Herb Geller, California warm, and he shows great range of expression on a couple of duets with Yeager, dark and foreboding on “Three Studies on Emotion” and stately on the chamber’d “Variations on a Floating Theme”. In a group format, he lets bassist Hailey walk some inventive trails to follow as on the easy lilting folk forms of “Turn Clockwise and Push” and the sinewy “The County Clerk”, which also features some ominous harmonies on the lurking keys.
Bennett also gets starry eyed, gliding over Bermejo’s cadence on a rich read of Holts’ “Jupiter” and he gets bluesy on “Bank Robbers” before his swirling clarinet creates a gloriously agitated undercurrent. Don’t get caught in the swell!
Best part of all of this is that each member of the team feels like just that, a member of the body. Bennett’s Mind is clear and uncluttered.