Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dave Anderson Quartet: Clarity

256

Dave Anderson Quartet: Clarity

By

View read count
Dave Anderson Quartet: Clarity
Having built a reputation as an exceptional reedman in Seattle, Dave Anderson presents a sparkling debut on the melodically rich Clarity, alternating between alto and soprano saxophones on eight original compositions and two covers. Having performed extensively throughout North America with luminaries like Jim McNeely, Clark Terry and the late great Mel Torme, Anderson moved to Seattle in 2005 from his native Minnesota, forming Dave Anderson Quartet after a one-nighter at Egan's Ballard Jamhouse. The group consists of pianist John Hansen; bassist Chuck Kistler; and drummer Adam Kessler, with Thomas Marriott taking to the flugelghorn in a guest appearance on "Wabi-Sabi."

Anderson's compositions are impressive, offering a varied selection of tones and harmonies, though he chooses to open the set with Joe Henderson's spicy samba, "Y Ya La Quiero," exploring it with his soprano voice, masterfully accompanied by Hansen. The frontline duet of Marriott and Anderson (again on soprano) on "Wabi-Sabi," is something sweet and special, while "Stalemate" is the first tune to display Anderson's alto chops, and presents Kistler's first solo.

Hansen is certainly no slouch here either, providing more of his crisp clean lines with an extended run on the reverend up-tempo burner "Troubled Angel," where the leader weighs in on another strong performance, again on the alto. One of the album's many highlights is the intimate piano and soprano duet on the lofty "The Aviator," offering both musicians the opportunity to explore individual flight patterns over the clear blue skies of Clarity. "Osby-an," and "Free"—played with two distinctly different tempos and rhythms—provide convincing evidence of Anderson's skills as a composer.

Dizzy Gillespie's "Beautiful Love"—the only other standard here—finds Anderson wielding the soprano with a gentle and graceful manner befitting the title of the piece, and delivering five minutes of pleasure. "Juror Number 2" jumps right out with a burst of alto and an opportunity for Kessler to stand out with several solo statements, but calms down with a short bass line, before reforming its hard-bop texture. "Moving On" is a beautiful, brief closer that ends much too quickly, at just a minute-and-a-half.

There's a large selection of genres across the spectrum of jazz, and sometimes musicians blur the lines in well-intentioned, ambitious attempts to provide the latest in jazz music. Dave Anderson Quartet avoids such pitfalls with a clear and convincing modern jazz masterpiece of a debut, Clarity, a recording of exceptionally creative charts and marvelous musicianship that's sure to garner its fair share of critical acclaim.

Track Listing

Y Ya La Quiero; Wabi-Sabi; Stalemate; Troubled Angel; The Aviator; Osby-an; Free; Beautiful Love; Juror Number 2; Moving On.

Personnel

Dave Anderson
saxophone

Dave Anderson: soprano saxophone, Alto saxophone; John Hansen: piano; Chuck Kistler: bass; Adam Kessler: drums; Thomas Marriott: flugelhorn (2).

Album information

Title: Clarity | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Pony Boy Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.