Playing tenor and soprano saxes, leader Mark Watkins puts together a band that is reminiscent of the Charlie Parker tribute band from the 1970s Supersax, with a reed heavy team of Ray Smith/as, Sandon Mayhew/ts and Jon Gudmundson/bs joined with brass men Derrick Gardner/tp and Vincent Gardner/tb and driven by Corey Christiansen/g, Justin Nielsen/p, Braun Khan/b and Kobie Watkins/dr on a collection of bopping originals.
The horns are upbeat a surround Watkins’ soprano over Watkins’ snappy sticks on “On Any Given Da In Summer” and the rhythm team hits hard for some sliding trombone and bouncing reeds on “Don’t Care Who Knows It’> Nielsen is delicate with Christiansen on the languid “Against My Desiere To Imatine” and Gudmundson’s bari takes the forefront on an elegiac “Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow and Forever”. All throughout the busload of reeds swerves and sways, sizzling on “Without Another World” and suave for the Latin Lover of “Shouldn’ A Did That”. This is a fun one!