Reviews_________________

January 2007

 

2) JASON RIGBY,
TRANSLUCENT SPACE,
FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT 254.
Proximo / Turquoise Turkish / Southampton (UK) / Atmospheric / 114 / Backandforthedness / Green of Greens / Mumbai / Christopher. 58:35.
Rigby, ts, ss, as, b cl, wood flt; Mike Holober, p, Fender Rhodes; Cameron Brown, b; Mark Ferber, d, cymbals; Rich Johnson, tpt; Lauren Riley, cel; Soo-Kyung Park, flt; Sam Sadigursky, cl; Jason Gillenwater, cl. June 1, 2005, New York City, NY.

      Fresh Sound just keeps on finding surprising new talent and giving it the opportunity to shine, and they've done it again here. (2) announces saxophonist Jason Rigby as a young cat to watch. He leads a nonet here and provides all the compositions as well. The written wind arrangements with cello as an alternate horn are solid and interesting, based usually on a simple melody line that provides ample room for some of Rigby's fine improvisations, primarily on tenor sax and bass clarinet. All of this is anchored by the great Cameron Brown on bass, who gets a nice solo feature opening "Atmospheric." Rigby is most persuasive on tenor, though he takes on a wood flute for "Mumbai" to add an exotic edge. About the only complaint with (2) is that Jason Rigby is still working his way out of the influence of Coltrane. But when he does find his own voice, and I don't think it will be long, he is going to have a lot to say. Buy this one so you can say you were listening to him "back in the day."

Phillip McNally