Gabe Katell: Hear, It Is

After years of paying his dues by gigging around with groups large and small in southern California, baritone saxophonist Gabe Katell has recorded Hear, It Is, the first album with his name above the marquee, and an impressive one it is, both musically and strategically.

To ensure its musical success, Katell enlisted the help of three top-notch side musicians—pianist Adam Hersh, bassist Kevin Axt, drummer Kevin Van Den Elzen—who together form a seamless unit that is communal and supportive on every one of the album's 60-plus minutes. As for strategy, Katell deserves a grade of A+ solely for his astute choice of five of the loveliest and most engaging standards ever written for the Great American Songbook.

The remainder of the playlist is almost as charming, starting with the melodic "Midnight Waltz" and including Charlie Parker's "Dewey Square," Sam Jones' "Unit 7," Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream" and Miles Davis' "Half Nelson." Arrangements are sharp and clean, tempos letter-perfect, and the quartet lends a special radiance to every number. The standards are "I Wish I Knew," "What's New," "It Could Happen to You," "I Hear a Rhapsody" and "You Don't Know What Love Is."

To further enhance the session's strategic import, Katell moves from baritone to flute on "I Wish I Knew," "Unit 7" and "I Hear a Rhapsody," and is as eloquent there as he is on baritone, whereon he sounds much like one of his mentors, the late Nick Brignola. Hersh adds a second strong voice, channeling the keyboard with creativity and poise, while Axt and Van Den Elzen answer firmly whenever their name is called.

Katell, who has been around the block more than a few times since moving from his native New York to California, exemplifies the wide and largely uncelebrated pool of jazz talent that nourishes the genre not only in California but across the country and around the world. It is a pleasure when one or more of them chooses to share their talents with a wider audience, as Katell has done on Hear, It Is. He could not have chosen a more appropriate name for his debut album.