Gone are the days when, awestruck, our jaws would drop and look on in amazement as, say, tenor players such as Tubby Hayes or Johnny Griffin navigated the changes at breakneck speed and, in the process played more notes in one chorus than many a lesser musician would play in a month.
That was then. Nowadays the exceptions are those who don't play at least a thousand notes per minute. Those players who place content above velocity. Joel Frahm is a player with a foot in both camps. He can keep pace with the sprinters and deliver profundity when the occasion demands it. Blow Poppa Joe - for Joe Henderson - is an example of the former, Silk Road, the latter.
As a chordless trio, the ghosts of bebop past are out there waiting to pounce and pass judgement. Their wait will be a long one. I love Sonny Rollins and Joshua Redman, the Grandmasters of chordless, saxophone-led trios, but Joel Frahm has moved into that exclusive society with an album that threatens guitarists and pianists with redundancy!
Of course there are three sides to every trio with Loomis shouldering the responsibility of keeping the ship on course when Frahm heads off into the unknown as Ernesto, BSH's man in Toronto, tastefully kicks seven shades out of the kit.
It all gels beautifully although there is a possible downside. The day after release (June 25, Anzic Records) eBay could well be swamped with posts such as: "Tenor saxophone for sale, one frustrated owner".
Now, how does this eBay thing work?
Lance
Blow Poppa Joe: Thinking of Benny; Boo Dip Dip; Silk Road; Omer's World; Qu'est-ce Que C'est; X Friends; Beeline; The Beautiful Mystery; The Bright Side.
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