You can argue all you want, but for my money, the tenor sax is the heart of jazz. Here are two lesser known artists that make the sax sing.Chad Lefkowitz-Brown takes the baton from big beefy tenor giants like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins on this muscular album with Steven Feifke/p, Raviv Markovitz/b and Jimmy MacBride/dr. The quartet flexes their collective muscles while the leader’s tenor delivers a voluminous sound on his pieces such as “Onward” and a muscular take of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” while showing he can be controlled by the bit as the stallion gets reigned in on a lyrical “All Of You” and displays a deft vibrato on “The Nearness of You.” His ‘Trane hand is shown as he uses a “Countdown” intro to his modal read of the master’s “Giant Steps.” With guest Randy Brecker on trumpet, the two get some hip hard bop on “Franklin Street” and do some Skunk Funk as they swagger on “Blues For Randy.” Selmers were made for albums like this!
Berta Moreno composes all of the pieces for this album with a double and sometimes triple sax team of Steve Wilson/’as-ss and Troy Roberts/ts-ss and a swinging rhythm team of Manuel Valera/p, Maksim Perepelica/b and David Hardy/dr. She has a warm and relaxed tone, and blends it well with the horns as Valera gets a McCoy Tyner groove on the piano for a modal “J.G. Power” and a snappy “Option A.” The mix of Moreno with Roberts’ soprano is a sweet thing on “Cosmic Dance” while Wilson’s alto sears over the driving Hardy on “Mid the Gap.” Moreno rides the tidal groove on “Broadway Bells” and “Little Steps” like a veteran long boarder, making this a collection of reed rapture.