Paul Carr: Just Noodlin'

Growing up in Houston, saxophonist Paul Carr was rasised in the tradition of the Texas Tenors. His local heroes included Don Wilkerson and Arnett Cobb. Carr started his musical education at Texas Southern University and completed it at Howard University in Washington, DC. He has since spent more than twenty years as a dynamic part of the DC jazz scene.

Since Carr's debut album came out in 1993, he he has participated on over 25 other recordings. As an educator, Carr initiated the Jazz Academy of Music, Inc., a nonprofit corporation dedicated to "advancing and preserving jazz through jazz education" through year-round workshops and a summer camp where Carr and a staff of local musicians teach high school students the principles of improvisation through small group and big band playing.

This sextet carr assembled for this session includes the highly regarded trumpeter Terell Stafford. Just Noodlin' begins with the title tune, a joyous hard bop recollection of the golden years of Blue Note Records, with Carr playing a robust, soulful tenor sax. The pace slows on Reuben Brown's "Blue and Brown," a blues piece which features a bass solo by Gavin Fallow. The Carrie Fischer standard "You've Changed" was inspired by Dexter Gordon's early-1960s reading on Blue Note, and Hank Mobley's "Pig 'N' Chat," first heard on The Turnaround, is given a rare reading from Carr. He plays soprano sax on Burt Bacharach's "Alfie," delivered in a semi-bossa tempo.