Though veteran saxophonist/flutist Robert Kyle and pianist Alyse Korn’s first wonderful dual album Tuesday Child is rooted in their mutual passions for Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and American jazz, their deeper intention on the lilting, lyrical and relaxing flow of these nine tracks is captured in Korn’s statement that “There’s a lot of turmoil in the world today, and we hope that when people listen to our music, they will feel the peace that we feel when we play it.”
It’s an interesting pairing in that Kyle, who has played with the likes of Natalie Cole, Linda Ronstadt and Carole King, has been recording for over 30 years and Korn, while having played with numerous Latin greats, has never recorded her own project before. The two met and cultivated their dynamic partnership at California Brazil Camp, where they continue to study Brazilian music with the masters. Though the tunes are very sax/flute and piano centric, their ensemble of Kevin Winard (drums), Leonice Shinneman (table) bassists Hussain Jiffry and Ahmet Turkmenoglu add the perfect complement of rhythm and exotica.
Korn and Kyle get things off to a beautiful, soft spoken start with her dreamy composition expressing “Gratitude,” a gently percussive showcase not only for the way her elegant piano interacts with Kyles tenderly soulful sax, but also for her surreal wordless vocals. The two then imagine the possibilities of what their partnership can be on Kyle’s gentle, then subtly rhythmic “What If,” which features his equally sparkling flute magic.
From there, it’s a true mutual respect fest, with Kyle paying tribute to his new partner with tender, dare we say romantically inclined pieces like “Your Light” and “Tuesday’s Child,” which perhaps attributes their powerful soul connection to the fact that both were born on a Tuesday. Another Kyle-composed gem is “Vivian’s Danzon,” a sensual, then suddenly whimsical flute piano dance drawing from the Cuban dance rhythm that he dedicates to his youngest sister.
The Korn compositions that stand out are the heartfelt, yearning ballad “Distance Between Us” (which she wrote after leaving her family on the East Coast and moving out west) and the haunting, deeply reflective and slyly rhythmic “Winter,” about her first experience in California’s snowy mountains after growing up in Florida. Tuesday’s Child looks and sounds like the start of a wonderful musical friendship!