| Dave Restivo, for one, was customarily elegant and responsive as an accompanist and soloist, while Jim Vivian's refined bass playing demonstrated why he's such an in-demand player, and drummer Alyssa Falk, visiting from New York, brought to the table a light touch to her sense of time, colour, and nuance.
In her blues, "For Tom Harrell", Jensen's dry lyrical alto kept probing into the tune, but when she quoted from "A Love Supreme", this raised for me the music's incantatory spell several notches. Her mournful tones at times recalled those of altoist Marion Brown.
Her two compositions, "Sea Fever" (and "Yew") reflected the global-minded Jensen's love of the local.
"Sea Fever" is "about the ocean in front of us", she said; the ocean being the Pacific Ocean as viewed by the composer/saxophonist Jensen who hails from Nanaimo, BC, on Vancouver Island. The soprano sax theme and its climbing/structuring/and questioning solo gradually emerged from Dave Restivo's lyrically poised and mesmeric piano themes.
A balance between composition and improvisation and, importantly, a balance between the four musicians was achieved.
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Christine Jensen |
