Brian Landrus isn't a saxophone player who doubles, no sir, he octuples! For this Ellington/Strayhorn set he used eight instruments and thanks to some jiggery pokery in the editing room he used them all simultaneously. His luscious baritone sax sound under-pinned by his other instruments plus, of course, Stryker's guitar and Billy Hart's sensitive drumming.
It's all clever stuff, far removed from Humph's One Man Went to Blow or even Bechet's 1941 one man band recordings, admirable as they were at the time.
Landrus arranged all but two of the fourteen tracks. Gregory Hopkins (Lush Life) and Ayn Inserto (Warm Valley) took care of the rest.
It goes without saying that anything by Ellington or Strayhorn in the right hands is going to be a thing of beauty and the material here is certainly in the right hands.
However, beautiful as it is, it's very much on the darker Ducal side and less committed students of the great man (men) might have hoped for a few lighter moments. Be that as it may I doubt if there's ever been a more compelling version of Sophisticated Lady than Landrus' unaccompanied 2:04 minutes version on bass sax.
He gets a sound almost as big as the trunk of his car - it must be big to carry all those instruments.
Release date July 12 (usual suspects).
Agra; Chelsea Bridge; A Flower is a Lovesome Thing; Daydream; Praise God; Prelude to a Kiss; Come Sunday; The Telecasters; Lotus Blossom; Lush Life; Isfahan; Star-crossed Lovers; Warm Valley; Sophisticated Lady
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