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Julius Tolentino: Just the Beginning
ByIn an instrumental category seemingly dominated by tenor players, Tolentino plays with a bell-clear, muscular sound, though it still remains remarkably lithe. This is in evidence from the beginning of this beginning, so to speak, on the rolling, dashing, darting opening number. Pelt and Davis sit this one out, reducing the group to a quartet and thereby turning this track into something of a vehicle for Tolentino to showcase his swing and mettle. With a solo each for Tolentino and Patton, the four players cram in a multitude of effortless tempo changes while working from a fairly common twelve-bar template. Benny Golson's "Domingo" gets a colorful, fiercely cohesive treatment from the full sextet. The segue from Tolentino to Pelt is so seamless that it seems as if his alto sax has magically morphed into a trumpet.
Tolentino shifts into a lyrical and tender mood for the upbeat Eckstein ballad "I Want to Talk About You," demonstrating a range suited to a musical phrasing that tips between the poetic and the colloquial. This is another quartet number, and the solos are again split between Tolentino and pianist Jeb Patton. To my ear it begs for a solo from otherwise laconic bassist Vicente Archer, which unfortunately doesn't come. Pelt's rather brief "Pharoah's Curse"a swinging, almost showbiz tunefollows, with all-too-pithy solos from the brass and piano. Again, Archer and drummer Willie Jones III are inexplicably passed over when their contributions might have embellished the song significantly.
"High Drama" by Davis is the disc's most intricate and least rigidly unified chart. It certainly merits its title, with Tolentino and Pelt hovering quite a bit in the upper register and a subdued Davis (whose solo falls between them) working as a foil. Here Jones does take a skittish solo to match the rumble and splash of his timekeeping, although Patton's monotonous vamp doesn't enhance it a great deal. The ultra-traditional ballad "Letter to Illinois" speaks to Tolentino's years spent in the Illinois Jacquet Big Band with the big band's instrumental inverse, an alto sax/piano duo, closing out this beginning as strongly as it began.
Track Listing
Just the Beginning; Domingo; I Want to Talk About You; Pharaoh's Curse; High Drama; Quadrangle; Shell Joy; Make Someone Happy; Letter to Illinois.
Personnel
Julius Tolentino
saxophone, altoJulius Tolentino: alto saxophone; Jeremy Pelt: trumpet (2,4-8); Steve Davis: trombone (2, 4, 5, 7, 8); Jeb Patton: piano; Vicente Archer: bass; Willie Jones III, Pete Van Nostrand: drums (8).
Album information
Title: Just the Beginning | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Sharp Nine Records
Comments
About Julius Tolentino
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
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