Ellery Eskelin - Premonition

All Music Guide

Along with Dave Douglas, Ellery Eskelin is the downtown New York player who gets plenty of respect from the neo-trad cats. This solo saxophone recording is a good indicator as to why that's true. Eskelin's notion of improvisation comes out of the '60s school of vanguard jazz, but his love of "the tune" comes straight from the late 1940s. His improvisation is possessed by an inherent lyricism he couldn't abandon if he tried. These six selections are more than saxophone exercises, or improvisations; they are mediations on tonal lyricism and space within the framework of what constitutes jazz improvisation. And while there are three gorgeously innovative reworkings of canonical jazz tunes -- "Besame Mucho," "Off Minor," and "Body and Soul," all three of which close out the album -- it's the first three pieces, the originals, that offer the real evidence of Eskelin's depth. The paced legato in "Solo 1: Phantasmagoria," the elliptical sonant scalar glide on "Solo 2: Song Cycle," and the mic...rotonal exploration of major thirds in "Solo 3: Premonition." This is a solo saxophone recording of a whole different color and esthetic, and it's truly wonderful. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide Read more Less