Nick Biello: New America

Alto saxophonist Nick Biello's New America covers a diverse and colorful landscape, one over which his able quintet glides, springs and dances with ease and assurance. Respectfully, they unravel a half-dozen of the leader's elaborate yet accessible compositions and arrangements.

Biello, whose upbringing in a music-centered household exposed him to every genre from jazz and classical to rock, r&b, world music and opera, took those credits with him as he studied at New Haven, Connecticut's Hartt School of music under legendary saxophonist Jackie McLean, among others, and transitioned to professional working musician.

On New America, his third album as leader, Biello shares the front line with trumpeter Charlie Porter whose solos are consistently keen and resourceful. Pianist George Colligan provides strong melodic and rhythmic support while bassist Alex Tremblay and Austrian-born drummer Peter Kronreif enforce the cadence.

Biello's fondness for opera is noted in the name of the album's opening number, "Bel Canto," a fast-paced swinger on which Biello and his teammates underscore the meaning of the term, which is to display an agile and precise technique. Snug group interplay animates the graceful bossa, "Queen of Jordan," leading to another rapid-fire burner, "Slightly Perilous," which pushes everyone's chops to the limit before matters calm on the picturesque "Before the Flood"—a sweeping narrative whose aim is to renew, in musical terms, tales predating and leading to the biblical flood.

Biello shows his warmer side on "A Long Way to You," a gentle ballad whose sensuous melody and earnest solos point the way to the nimble and expressive "New America," which closes the generally sharp and engaging session with a stylish flair. A bright feather in Biello's cap and a garland for the quintet as a whole.

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