Jamie Saft Quartet: Blue Dream

You can never be sure what multi-instrumentalist Jamie Saft will be up to next. Recent endeavors include very noisy electric music (Slobber Pup), a collaboration with Iggy Pop, Steve Swallow and Bobby Previte (2017's Loneliness Road), a solo piano session (2018's Solo a Genova), or, most intriguingly, Blue Dream by the Jamie Saft Quartet. This relatively straight-ahead session features tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, bassist Bradley Christopher Jones, and drummer Nasheet Waits in a program of Saft’s well-crafted original compositions plus three standards. Saft's Vessels is up first. Opening quietly and then growing more intense with every passing moment, the tune finds Saft in a McCoy Tyner bag as McHenry blows softly through the changes before building up a head of steam. Jones and Waits keep careful control of the tune’s dynamics. Equanimity rolls right along, stoked by Waits’ introductory solo and McHenry’s passionate cry. Saft really digs into the tune for an impressively wide-ranging piano solo, complete with a few prods from McHenry. Like Saft, McHenry is comfortable in a broad range of musical expression. The saxophonist wails on the boisterous Sword’s Water, plays sweetly on Violets For Your Furs, and is suitably passionate on the Coltrane-ish Infinite Compassion. Clearly he’s a player who enjoys challenges, rising to the occasion every time. The way that Saft is playing on this date makes me think he’s having a ball with this group. It’s a little hard to pick a tune that really showcases his playing, but if I had to highlight one song, it would be Words and Deeds, where his bluesy sensibility and astute sense of solo structure come together perfectly. The closing track is There’s a Lull in My Life, a 1937 song by the team of Mack Gordon and Harry Revel, in a thoroughly gorgeous and immaculately poised performance. Without a single dull moment, Blue Dream is a happy surprise and an exquisite exercise in modern small group jazz. Highly recommended. Wonder what Saft will be up to next time ...
RareNoise RNR095; Bill McHenry (ts) Jamie Saft (p) Bradley Christopher Jones (b) Nasheet Waits (d); Kingston NY, fall 2017; Vessels/ Equanimity/ Sword’s Water/ Violets For Your Furs/ Blue Dream/ Infinite Compassion/ Sweet Lorraine/ Walls/ Decamping/ Words and Deeds/ Mysterious Arrangements/ There’s a Lull in My Life; 55:18. www.rarenoiserecords.com