Alto saxophonist Loren Pickford is a veteran of jazz scenes from LA, San Francisco NYC, Miami, Denver, Amsterdam, Boston and Paris before he settled in New Orleans in 1990. He was forced out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and has re-located to Kansas City MO for the time being.
As a recording artist he has four prior releases under his own name including "Dancing In The Spirit Fires" (featuring Kei Akagi and nominated for a Grammy in 1991), "Song For A Blue Planet" (featuring Billy Higgins and George Cables) and "Elysian Fields" (featuring Brian Blade and Leroy Jones).
Pickford has scored music for Broadway shows ("Story Theater") and PBS specials ("Master of Light") and is also an active sculpter, painter, and poet.
On this release Mid City, Pickford teams up with his quartet including some of New Orleans' finest players, for a recording session of hard swinging bop and post-bop, with a subtle and more lyrical edge.
The CD features Bill Huntington on bass, Todd Duke on guitar, and Herman LeBeaux on drums.
The quartet deftly navigates through tunes by Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie and Lennie Tristano along with originals by Pickford and Duke.
This CD is must for any jazz fan.
"He plays tons and tons more alto than any guy today; he'd mop the floor with most wonders of 'alto madness'. Yet he's saying something new on the sax. The results are profound and a must for all ears."
-Tim Price (Saxophone Journal)
"He is a master of the horn, and not once will technique interfere with the expression of his musical ideas. His tone, nuances, effects, and of course his ideas, are at the tip of his mind. Pickford makes the alto sax sound like it should."
-Bob Redinger (Jazz Times)
"Though words fall short in trying to get a handle on Pickford's gripping style, it is clear that part of his appeal comes from his dare devil ability to dance on the edge without falling. Pickford pushes his mastery of the idiom (and his horn) to the brink time and time again."
-Chuck Berg (The Lawrence Journal World)
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