Matt Renzi: Presenza

On Presenza, reedmanMatt Renzi and his new quartet—the first one featuring a piano—opens with an audacious burst of sound. The tune, "Loving Kindness," one of nine Renzi originals featured here, sounds as if the saxophonist and his quartet mates are serious about the subject, crafting a high-octane burner that takes no prisoners. Renzie tears it up, and the rhythm guys—pianist Dahveed Behroozi, bassist Josh Thurston-Milgrom and drummer Tim Bulkley lay down a jagged backdrop, and Renzi blows like a storm.

The leader's stated goal on the album as a whole was to goal was to: "cover a lot of different moods and to try to break away from doing just one thing." He does this by going from the intensity of the opener to a spare and pensive piano/sax duet, "Quintessence," which is plaintive and inward-looking.

"New Year evokes images of dark clouds rolling in off a grey ocean, a combination of Renzi's jazz and classical music influences, leaning more to the classical in its intricate tranquility.

In addition to his tenor sax, Renzi also displays his chops on the English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet and flute. He mixes his different axes into sophisticated quartet arrangements on the breezy "New Year," the gutsy, Ben Webster-ish } "Presence" and the mournful, classically influenced "Remembrance," on a fine album bolstered by beautiful sound quality.

Having worked in the chordless trio format on his with, among others, Cave (Fresh Sound New Talent) and Happy Hour (Three P's Records, 2011), it is nice to hear him bring the piano to the mix. He picked a good one with Behroozi.

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