Mike Allen: To a Star

If you're a tenor saxophonist leading a piano-less trio, much of the group's melodic and harmonic components rest squarely on your shoulders. In spite of that—or perhaps because of it—Canadian tenor Mike Allen says he prefers working within that framework, as he has been doing for many years.

If that is one's choice, he may as well recruit as comrades in arms the best bassist and drummer available. On To a Star, Allen has done precisely that, enlisting the services of the masterful bassist John Lee and peerless drummer Carl Allen who form an ideal supporting cast on an album that is part studio session, part live performance at Frankie's Jazz Club during the annual Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Three of the album's ten songs were recorded at Vancouver's Warehouse Studio—the fiery opener, "Hot Stuff," and two of the last three—all original compositions by Lee. Tracks 2-7 and 9 were recorded at the Vancouver Festival. They include the charming standards "Invitation," "What Is This Thing Called Love" and "Stars Fell on Alabama," Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan," Wayne Shorter's "JuJu" and Allen's "Tabasco Burn" and "One-Up-Man-Ship." Allen also wrote "Speak Truth" and "To a Star," each recorded in the studio.

Interestingly enough, Allen's assertive tenor seems a shade darker and heavier indoors than it does onstage. In either case, it brings to mind such contemporary stalwarts as Doug Lawrence and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown or, from an earlier era, Allen Eager, Gene Ammons or Johnny Griffin. As one might expect, Allen breezes through the program with ease, as do Lee and drummer Allen. There are no lapses, technically or melodically, in what must have been a pleasurable listening experience for the audience.

If there is a damper, it lies in Allen's preferred alignment, which means that after finishing what he has to say, he must hand the reins over to Lee or Carl Allen, and, capable as they are, neither one is playing piano. If that doesn't bother you, To a Star brightens the cosmos and beams one heavenward.