Tenor Sax Trios: JD Allen, Charles Owens, Mark Turner

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Since Sonny Rollins' landmark recordings in 1957 and 1958 (Way Out West, A Night at the Village Vanguard, Freedom Suite), tenor sax plus bass and drums has been an attractive format for many tenor players. As Michael J. West wrote in Jazz Times "when jazz artists ... began experimenting with chordless ensembles in the 1950s, the sax trio became a daring extension of those experiments, and eventually a staple of small-group jazz. The lack of a piano or any other chordal instrument gives the band's sound an openness, a devil-may-care freedom (even outside of free jazz) that suggests anything can happen at any moment." Several current tenor players keep returning to this format as a preferred ensemble form. In this hour of Jazz at 100 today, tenor trios of JD Allen, Charles Owens and Mark Turner.

Playlist

• Host Intro 0:00
• JD Allen Trio "Victory!" from Victory! (Sunnyside) 3:04
• JD Allen Trio "Sonny Boy" from Graffiti (Savant) 7:10
• JD Allen Trio "Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil" from Americana: Musings on Jazz and Blues (Savant) 13:11
• Host speaks 19:49
• Charles Owens Trio "UMMG" from A Day with Us (Jellowstone) 22:10
• Charles Owens Trio "Moon River" from A Wealth in Common (32 Bar) 28:29
• Charles Owens Trio "Stardust" from Three & Thirteen (Ropeadope) 33:21
• Host speaks 39:46
• FLY "CJ" from Sky & Country (ECM) 42:04
• Fly "Benj" from The Year of the Snake (ECM) 49:26
• Host Outro 54:40