Alisha's Quartet: Along for the Ride (2012)

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: October 29, 2012

Alisha Pattillo's tenor saxophone case sports an impressive variety of destination stickers, real and metaphorical, where the young artist has visited in her life. Anglo-Australian, Patillo was raised in Singapore and proceeded to woodshed throughout Southeast Asia before receiving a first-rate schooling at Australia's Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, majoring in jazz saxophone and education preparation. So, after completing her studies in 2006, where does Pattillo finally land? Well, in Houston, Texas, of course, where she has become a snug part of the "Houston Jazz Mafia" that includes multi-instrumentalist Henry Darragh Henry Darragh

vocal , singers Melissa Darragh, Tianna Hall Tianna Hall
b.1980
vocal , Jacqui Sutton Jacqui Sutton

vocal and Danielle Reich Danielle Reich

vocal , guitarist Paul Chester and (by extension), trumpeter Carol Morgan Carol Morgan
b.1968
trumpet . Houston has a very heterogeneous jazz community, it is a place perfectly suited to Patillo.

Pattillo's debut Along for the Ride is a collection of jazz- funk standards found just this side of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley Julian "Cannonball" Adderley
1928 - 1975
saxophone and Eddie Harris Eddie Harris
1934 - 1994
saxophone , whose "Freedom Jazz Dance" opens Patillo's disc. Pattillo's approach is to lay out an idea and let the band do its thing. She is largely successful in this. These songs were obviously honed on the bandstand into the tight orbit they inhabit. The saxophonist employs guitarist Paul Chester as her harmony continuo, in place of the piano. Chester emerges as a major driving force in the Houston area by displaying his broad adaptability as evidenced by his role here and that which he played on Jacqui Sutton's recent Notes From the Frontier: A Musical Journey (Toy Blue Typewriter, 2012). It is a band whose performance is precise from experience.

Pattillo's saxophone style is muscular and confident. Her influences are many, but fellow Houstonian and tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder Wilton Felder
b.1940
sax, tenor , from the Crusaders Crusaders
(another Houston band) looms particularly large. Pattillo covers Felder's ballad "My Lady," from that group's Street Life (MCA, 1979) and purloins the band's setup of "Eleanor Rigby," from Scratch (Blue Thumb, 1974). She plays two tunes from contemporary saxophonist Joshua Redman Joshua Redman
b.1969
saxophone —"Headin' Home" and "Mischief," both from Moodswing (Warner Brothers, 1995)—dispatching them with funky authority and a perfect tone. Pattillo properly adds to that embarrassment of wealth of jazz talent in Houston.

Track Listing: Freedom Jazz Dance; My Lady; Headin’ Home; The Jody Grind; Mischief; James; Walkin’; Eleanor Rigby; Black Nile.

Personnel: Alisha Pattillo: tenor saxophone, EWI; Paul Chester: guitar; Richard Cholakian: drums; David Craig: bass (1, 4, 5, 7, 8); Keith Vivens: bass (2, 3, 9); Robert Markoff: keyboards (2).

Record Label: Self Produced