Petter Wettre: The Only Way To Travel 2

Saxophonist Petter Wettre cannot help but draw many references to the great Sonny Rollins. It's his sound—a big, warm voice with muscular articulation. On the download-only The Only Way To Travel 2, he teams up with drummer Audun Kleive, to reprise Volume One (2000), made ten years ago.

With t"Medley," it's only Wettre's horn that's heard; a transport back to 1959 and the sounds of someone practicing on New York City's Williamsburg bridge. If there were such a thing as a digital recorder back then, it might just have sounded like Wettre's "Medley." The unhurried saxophonist travels through a measured journey of "Mob Job" and "The Blessing," by Ornette Coleman; Trinkle Tinkle" and "Pannonica," by Thelonious Monk; "Naima," by John Coltrane; and Sammy Fain and Bob Hilliard's "Alice In Wonderland."

Wettre's keypads can be heard engaging, as well as his breaths, as he seamlessly stitches together the now-familiar melodies into a thoughtful rumination on the music of a half a century ago. Gone are the controversies of the New Thing, and the eccentric Monk. It may have taken decades, but the music is now comfort food to those who have survived the jazz revolution. In the hands of Wettre, the notes of these songs act as a nourishing repast of sound.

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