Creating one of the most fascinating jazz tribute albums in ages, veteran tenor saxman Jorge Nila – whose expansive resume includes Eddie Palmieri, Jack McDuff, Paul Simon and The B-52’s – pays loving homage, on Tenor Time: Tribute to the Tenor Masters, to nine legends of his instrument whose brilliance inspired his own.
Delving into a variety of moods and tempos, the versatile horn man and his swinging, simmering quartet of Dave Stryker (guitar), Mitch Towne (organ) and Dana Murray (drums) explore the deeper soul details and rhythmic variation of non-obvious catalog gems by Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine (Stevie Wonder’s “Rocket Love”), Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and Harold Vick.
It’s a colorful, poignant yet celebratory stroll touching on various flashpoints of jazz history that serves as both an entertaining slice of education of itself – and an inviting open door to explore the deeper works of the legends Nila so reveres.