Arman Sangalang: Waypoints

Saxophonist Arman Sangalang released his debut record, Quartet (Calligram Records) in 2023. It was a smoldering sax-and-a-rhythm-section quartet outing that sounded surprisingly fresh for a first recording effort. His follow-up, Waypoints, employs the same format, switching out bassist Matt Ulery for Ethan Philion, while keeping guitarist Dave Miller and drummer Devin Drobka. The sophomore effort careens toward expanded freedom, boldly.

"I wanted to give them [his quartet cohorts] the freedom to do what they wanted with the music," Sangalang says. His rhythm section took that thought and ran with it.

In a set of seven Sangalang originals (one co-written with Oliver Wattles) and the seemingly favorite standard of every saxophonist since 1939, when Coleman Hawkins recorded it: "Body & Soul." The group navigates the terrain of the eight compositions with a band of cross-country hikers hopped up on a collective caffeine high, stomping headlong around some obstacles while pounding over others, and going off on the occasional tangent into wilder, off-trail terrain.

Sangalang's tone is burnished and husky, immersed in a group sound tethered, sometimes tenuously, to the mainstream yet still unafraid of going wild and woolly. Miller is the key; his use of pedals and effects, his employment of surf rock reverb and heavy metal bombast, amidst moments of plucky, tightly wound bopping, keep the surprises coming. He and the leader trade solo space with a flexible grace. And Miller cooks like a demon chef—surrounded by a frenetic kitchen crew—on "Less Is..." 

"Body & Soul" closes the show. It is a ruminative and almost spiritual sound, played by all—after an extended opening solo by Sangalang—that pays respect to the now-venerable tune.