altoist

I attended the first of these and enjoyed over two hours of superb music from the leader and his front line partner, altoist Bobby Militello.

Instead, Allison Neale, who acknowledges the influence of Paul Desmond (altoist with Dave Brubeck), plays in a restrained, almost fastidious style, with a dry, introverted tone.

Meanwhile, just around the corner from the hall in Berkley Street, Soweto Kinch and Gary Crosby play their tribute to the great Jamaican altoist Joe Harriott.

This 1978 classic puts the pioneer altoist in two radical mixes: his early acoustic quartet and his fierce electrofunk Prime Time.

Eric Alexander & Vincent Herring - The Battle: Live at Smoke (High Note HCD 7137) pounds 12.99 HHH Saxophone battles have traditionally been between tenors - think Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet and Dexter Gordon, etc - but this one pits young tenor man Eric Alexander against altoist Vincent Herring.

Inner Space Music, led by trumpeter Loz Speyer and featuring altoist Chris Biscoe, play Dean Clough, Halifax on September 29 at 8pm.

Adding an altoist to the tenor-guitar-drums combo gives it a jazzier depth of field, although the sense of whimsy obviously remains intact.

It was perhaps significant that one of the best numbers, Harlem Nocturne, featuring altoist Jo Kilkenny, was quasi-classical.

But the pairing of the tenor players is unusual, Christlieb was a boisterous young buck with a background in big bands and as a session player, Marsh a bit of a cult figure, best known for his associations with altoist Lee Konitz and their guru of cool, pianist Lennie Tristano.

In 1982, a young altoist named Steve Coleman, who'd come to New York from his native Chicago, was playing on the street and living at the Y.M.C.A., working his way into the jazz scene.

The man making most waves at the moment is altoist Zim Ngqawana, and it's a joy to find his music finally available in Britain, with New Note distributing this year's Vadzimu as well as the disc which first brought him to the notice of the American critics, 2001's Zimphonic Suites.

(That disc's associate producer was altoist Tim Berne, who is, along with Ehrlich, one of Hemphill's major disciples.) And his writing for large ensembles, as his Julius Hemphill Big Band (Elektra Nonesuch) demonstrates, is incisive and seductive.

Frank Foster on tenor contributes a few, so does trumpeter Thad Jones, and there's altoist Frank Wess too.