Tim Armacost
's second release on the
Double-Time
label is solidly within the post-bop mainstream, yet uncommonly ambitious. Any young tenor player who dares to tackle as grand a composition as
John Coltrane
's
"Crescent"
is aiming high. No less bold is his decision to open the album with
"Body and Soul,"
a proving ground for tenor saxophonists since
Coleman Hawkins
put it on the map in 1939 (and
Coltrane
reinvented it in 1960).
Armacost
handles these challenges well, bookending
with turbulent rubato passages (hats off to drummer
Billy Hart
) and taking
"Body and Soul"
at an easy 3/4 clip. His own compositions are intelligent and varied:
"Sustenance"
and
"Special Delivery"
are brisk and burning,
"Black Sand Beach"
is a well-crafted ballad, and the title track is a peppy samba. His playing is passionate and strikingly mature, and as an up-and-coming jazzer, he couldn't have asked for better sidemen than
, bassist
Ray Drummond
, and pianist
Bruce Barth
. While
The Wishing Well
doesn't quite have the raw energy of 1998's
Live at Small's
(even though it was also recorded live, in Holland), it is still a fine offering from a fine musician. ~ David R. Adler