Kate Olson: So It Goes

There are times when an album slips completely off the rails so abruptly and forcefully that it tarnishes what has come before it as well as what is to follow. Such is the case with Seatte-based saxophonist and composer Kate Olson's album, So It Goes, which is humming briskly along, free from perplexity or discord, until she and her companions decide to perform Alice Coltrane's enigmatic "Translinear Light." By the time those seven minutes-plus have passed, whatever positive impressions the album has made have for the most part been forgotten and replaced by the question, "What were they thinking?"

As if that were not enough to dampen the party, Olson follows with her own somber compositions, "Pink Mountain" and "Afterthoughts," neither of which does much to lighten the mood, although, to be fair, they are at least melodically handsome and harmonically strong. The same holds true for the album's other half-dozen numbers, all written by Olson, from the bouncy, bop-flavored curtain-raiser, "Bumbling Thumbs Blues," to the hard-hitting finale, "Weigh Out," wherein Olson shows she can play with discernment and brio when necessary, as does her front-line partner, trombonist Conner Eisenmenger.

Olson plays soprano sax and leads a quartet most of the way, adding pianist Wayne Horvitz and bassist Geoff Harper on three numbers (including "Translinear Light") to amplify the quartet's resident rhythm section, (bassist Tim Carey, drummer Evan Woodle). Carey plays guitar on Olson's mellow waltz, "Nominally Challenged." Eisenmenger is also listed on trumpet, but any move to that horn must have been extremely brief, as it passes by without notice.

If Olson's gospel-inspired title song brings to mind the traditional hymn, "Amazing Grace," that is probably no accident, as she borrows liberally from its familiar melody to design "So It Goes." The lines are smooth and graceful, hardly the sort of prelude one might expect to the more dissonant and disordered "Translinear Light." For the most part, So It Goes goes where it should, guiding the listener along a clear and charming path with no unwelcome detours. There is, however, that one massive bump in the road, one whose presence makes the entire trip far less pleasing than it otherwise might have been.