Alex Hendriksen: Lotus Blossom

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about a young tenor saxophonist who, after some arm twisting from a friend, was persuaded to venture on to the bandstand and join in a jam session alongside Coleman Hawkins. Afterwards the player was asked by his friend whether he had enjoyed the experience. "It was OK," he said, "but Coleman Hawkins scared the shit out of me." His friend replied, "Coleman Hawkins is supposed to scare the shit out of you."

Hawkins did his shit scaring on two fronts: as a technically virtuosic saxophonist and as a master navigator of the chord progressions which were the harmonic basis of the show tunes and standards that comprised the repertoire of jazz musicians of his era. But during Hawkins' final years, in the late 1960s, technical proficiency and mastering the changes were no longer de rigueur. So called "energy players" got by on emotional intensity; other, "legit" musicians exchanged harmonic progressions for modes, which in effect meant playing just one chord, maybe two, throughout a piece.

Of course, the changes never went away. But in 2024 they have once more been moved aside by musicians who prefer to roam freely through modes rather than adhere to pre-determined route maps. Think of much of the London underground jazz scene or the Chicago one of the late, great Jaimie Branch. Other musicians still favour the changes. Two of them are the Swiss tenor saxophonist Alex Hendriksen and bassist Fabian Gisler, whose The Song Is You (Ezz-thetics, 2019) is a 21st century romp through a 20th century songbook written by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Michel Legrand, Victor Young, Harry Warren and Richard A. Whiting.

Hendriksen and Gisler conjure another batch of magic on Lotus Blossom with a songbook written by much the same cast. The difference this time is the presence of the thoroughly modern drummer Paul Amereller, whose contribution lifts the new album a notch above its predecessor, at least in this parish. The composers are Strayhorn (four tunes), Monk, Young, Warren, Tadd Dameron, Benny Golson, Eddie DeLange/Louis Alter, David Mann/Bob Hilliard and Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein.

They do not (or perhaps they do) write 'em like that anymore. But, happily, they do still play 'em.

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