Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)
Yesterday morning I learned about the release of Positive Energy, the latest jazz album to be led by saxophonist Greg Abate. I became aware of Abate a little over four years ago, when Whaling City Sound released a two-CD album entitled Magic Dance: The Music of Kenny Barron. Abate had compiled a collection of fourteen of Barron’s original compositions, performing them with a rhythm section led by Barron himself at the piano, joined by Dezron Douglas on bass and Jonathan Blake on drums.
With the exception of “Easy Living,” Positive Energy is an album of originals, six by Abate and three by John Rangel, the pianist in the quartet that Abate leads. The other members of the quartet are Terry Burns on bass and drummer David Post. All of the tracks were recorded during a session in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both my wife and I have fond memories of Santa Fe from the days when we would regularly attend the opera performances presented during the summer. I remember being able to sit in on chamber music rehearsals during the day, but I do not recall any contact with jazz gigs.
Since my own instrument is the piano (however feeble my efforts may be), I was particularly drawn to Rangel’s inventiveness on the tracks of this new release. While Abate had played all four sizes of saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone) on Magic Dance, he confined himself to alto on Positive Energy. His command of both intonation was consistently solid, and his improvisations definitely matched Rangel’s. Thus, while none of the tunes themselves etched particularly deeply into memory, the spontaneity of the improvisations definitely held my attention from one track to the next.
This tends to be the best I can expect of jazz originals these days; but, if Abate should find his way to Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club, which is just down the street from where I live in San Francisco, I would probably be interested in having a “live” encounter with him!
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