Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Aaron Irwin Group: Into The Light

143

Aaron Irwin Group: Into The Light

By

View read count
Aaron Irwin Group: Into The Light
Alto saxophonist Aaron Irwin's second album is an impressive work with five originals, two standards and Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty." Irwin's quintet includes tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, who appears on five of the eight selections, plus guitarist Ryan Scott, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Greg Ritchie.

Irwin, who's originally from Decatur, Illinois, studied in Chicago at DePaul University starting in 1996. As a member of the DePaul University Big Band, he took advantage of several opportunities that arose, including gigs with Louie Bellson, Dick Oatts and Joe Lovano. Irwin was able to find a lot of work in 2000 aboard various cruise ships. While he was living in Miami, he had the opportunity to record a commissioned work by bandleader Maria Schneider with the University of Miami Concert Jazz Band. A resident of New York since 2002, Irwin has been busy teaching and playing both locally and on tour.

Beginning the album with a much slower than usual version of the Jerome Kern classic "All the Things You Are," Irwin pleasantly shows that he knows a lot about melody playing. He and Perry introduce the melody without the pyrotechnics usually associated with a bebop ensemble. Ryan Scott shows that he prefers the Kurt Rosenwinkel school of guitar, and his solo relies heavily on smeary notes and feedback, which detract from the mood of this piece.

The original "Fumes," which opens with a dual-horn melody line (a la 1960s Blue Note), finds Perry in a more agressive solo which places his style in the post-Coltrane vein, in contrast to Irwin, who leans more towards a more cerebral but swinging Lee Konitz style. Scott's solo begins in a melody-oriented way, but gravitates towards a noisier, louder conclusion.

Ryan Scott is an effective feeder, providing the cushion for the horns; on "Into the Light," he provides his best (and straight-ahead) guitar solo. Irwin and Perry also give us a tantalizing version of Cole Porter's "So In Love" where the two horns intertwine as the track begins, in the manner of West Coast players from the 1950s, before the rest of the group joins in.

Track Listing

All the Things You Are; Fumes; Into the 90's; Into the Light; So in Love; The Point; The Anti-Hero; Ugly Beauty.

Personnel

Aaron Irwin
saxophone, alto

Aaron Irwin: alto saxophone; Rich Perry: tenor saxophone (1,2,4-6); Ryan Scott: guitar; Matt Clohesy: bass; Greg Ritchie: drums.

Album information

Title: Into the Light | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Fresh Sound New Talent

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.