Album Notes

With all of the liberal variants on jazz these days, this session led by saxophonist Steve Snyder is refreshingly honest to the art form that IS jazz. From bebop to bossa nova, Snyder's debut release reveals the best components and characters of America's only indigenous music.

Since jazz is spontaneous, freshness is a necessity – and this committed quartet succeeds with an instinctive inventiveness that plays throughout. Soloistically, each man is, in the proper jazz vernacular, "right in the groove." Pianist Matt Whited offers some delicate keyboarding while Austin Nicholsen contributes a rich bass line in swinging fashion. Drummer Mike Ferrara rounds out the caliber cast. Whether high-hatting or at the brushes, his percussive nuances set a secure foundation.

In regards to the noteworthy leader, Snyder's alto sound is consistently ethereal and crystalline. Jazz devotees, too, can easily surmise how he's not only studied the highly improvisational craft, but its history as well. In his tone and conceptions, one can pick up traces of giants – past and present – like Paul Desmond, Art Pepper and Gary Foster.

Aptly titled "Standards of Giants," this disc is just that. It covers Tin Pan Alley's vintage best (the Gershwins, Kern & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart), while incorporating a few obscure authors of the era and later-period pieces. One can hardly lose with such a standard approach and with good reason: these favorites have long proven to stand the test of time.

-- Steven Harris, jazz historian and author of The Kenton Kronicles

Steve Snyder, with this recording, has made a fine personal statement by documenting both his beautiful melodic approach to the alto saxophone and his jazz voice as an improviser. Listen to his statement of the melody on The End Of A Love Affair. I greatly admire his restraint and artistry as he states the real melody of the song. The chosen repertoire couldn’t be better.

-- Gary Foster