Brent Gallaher – MOVING FORWARD: Brent Gallaher’s stellar tenor saxophone, joined by Alex Pope Norris on trumpet/flugelhorn, Dan Karlsberg on piano, Aaron Jacobs doing bass, and Anthony Lee on drums, makes for some of the “coolest” jazz you’ll hear in 2017. The street date was January 6th, 2017, so it should be in stores by the time you read this! His style is very straight-up, but he doesn’t overpower any of the other players… just listen to the opener, “Serendipity“, to get a taste for what forward movement in the 21st Century sounds like! Another point that needs to be made is that the album is among the very best recordings I’ve heard in a long time… every note, every brush and every nuance is captured in crystal-clear fashion.
Though there are only eight songs, they are all full-length and vibrant… “old school” jazzheads will be hanging on every adventurous note, especially on tunes like the down & funky-feeling “No Apparent Reason” (think “back-alley”, or “jazzkeller” jazz, & you’ll have a pretty good idea what I mean)… well-seasoned performers who know how to bring the listener right in… I would recommend you do this entire 53:05 set with headphones on, & listen to it all in one sitting… you’ll keep coming back for more, I’ve no doubt, & that’s especially true for wonderful compositions like “Rain Waltz“… this 7:09 jazz masterpiece is my personal favorite, and the repeat button gets hit often on this tune! I give Brent and crew a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) rating of 4.99. You can learn much more about this fascinating Cincinnati player on Brent’s bio page. Rotcod Zzaj
