Nick Sanders (alto); Logan Strosahl (pno).(Review by Lance).
Duo gigs are now as much the norm as trios, quartets, quintets and, probably more than sextets and infinitely more than bands numerically larger. Finance is usually the winner when artistic values are in the red corner. Bass players and drummers are the big losers - and, of course, the listeners.
Janus, in Roman Mythology, The God of Time, possessed of two diametrically opposed faces (I've known a few women like that!) looked simultaneously backward and forwards.
Hence the title.
Sanders and Strosahl do look in different directions. The music straddles Medieval, Baroque, Contemporary Classical, Bebop (hooray!) and more modern jazz. It's a delightful journey across the ages. They're playing music, improvising on tunes they've written as well as some that others too have wrote e.g. Hoagy Carmichael (Stardust); Willard Robinson (Old Folk's); Thelonious Monk (Thelonious).
Also in the mix are compositions by de Machaut; Francois Couperin and Olivier Messiaen.
Two very fine young musicians offering a unique approach to jazz as we know it today and as we knew it yesterday.
The album was launched last week at Cornelia St. Café in NYC.
Had the launch been in Newcastle, UK - I'd have suggested Lit and Phil on a Friday lunchtime as opposed to the Jazz Café on a Friday night!
Lance.
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