Tenor saxist featured his warm and breathy tenor on last year’s Love Stone. This time around, he focuses on the dark and thick lower register with a sharper edge, exchanging his Ben Webster for a Sonny Rollins tone in a trio setting with bassist Ian Kenselaar and a very busy drummer in Nic Cacioppo. The push and pull between Allen’s longer tones and Cacioppo’s kinetic sticks makes for fascinating contrasts throughout, as on the frisky and loose title tune, the dark “G sus” and the thickly textured “13.” Allen gives off some field hollars on the angular blues “The Goldilocks Zone” and is rich over the pitter patter of “Eye Scream.” Kenselaar’s electric bass keeps things laconic for the brushes and warm “The Immortal” while “Ursa Major” has him holding down Allen’s high pitches and harmonics. Palpable sounds and musical magma.
Savant Records