Tony Malaby

Last year I spent a week in New York. I not only had the pleasure of visiting the Village Vanguard (David Sanchez), the Blue Note (Odean Pope, James Carter, even Stanley Clarke) and the tiny Barbès in Brooklyn (Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson). But the very best concert I saw during that week was in the beautiful Cornelia Street Café in the heart of the Village.
The band playing there was a quartet led by Tony Malaby (with John Hébert, Ralph Alessi and Billy Drummond). Beyond doubt Malaby's one of the most interesting saxophonists on the present jazz scene. On the same trip, I bought loads of cd's in the Downtown Music Gallery (go there when you're in NY!), and Adobe is definitely the one I listened to the most.
It's a "classic" sax trio, recorded in 2003, with the rock solid Drew Grass on bass and on drums Paul Motian, still incredible after all these years. Malaby, who wrote four of the nine tunes, shines on tenor and on soprano. His reading of Ornette Coleman's Humpty Dumpty , the excellent opener, sounds very fresh. His tone on sax sounds very modern, firm, full of vision, with an open mind and an avantgarde edge, though he never loses himself in extensive squeaking or growling.
As excellent as Drew Gress sounds, it's Paul Motian who makes this cd a special success. His sound is so recognizable, and he propels the music to a higher level.
I know there's been plenty of beautiful saxtrio-cd's recently (the ones by Donny McCaslin and J.D. Allen come to mind), but this one will neither disappoint the avid fan of real present-day jazz.
Peter