Wayne Escoffery's debut disc features a fine quartet, with Aaron Goldberg on piano, Joel Forbes on bass, and Carl Allen on drums.
Brandishing a weighty tenor sax tone, Escoffery leads the group through three originals and five inspired cover arrangements.
The laid-back but fiercely swinging "Come Back Lucky" starts off the session, followed by a relatively bright "Beatrice," a full-tilt "After You've Gone," and a touching "That's All." Back-to-back originals follow; the first, "Times Change," is a rhythmically involved swinger, while "Dawn" mellows things out and features the leader on soprano sax.
Winding down, the group offers a 7/4 reading of Jobim's "Triste," with a funky modal vamp thrown in.
Goldberg then sits out the finale, "Water Pistol," a satisfying mid-tempo rhythm changes tune by Yusef Lateef.
Overall, the sound of the recording could be warmer, but Escoffery displays a highly impressive command of the music and the instrument.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BeatriceSam Rivers | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 06:50 | 15 MB | 49 MB |
| 2 | After You've GoneHenry Creamer, Turner Layton | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 06:29 | 14 MB | 48 MB |
| 3 | That's AllAlan Brandt, Bob Haymes | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 07:58 | 18 MB | 46 MB |
| 4 | Times ChangeWayne Escoffery | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 06:50 | 15 MB | 51 MB |
| 5 | DawnWayne Escoffery | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 06:30 | 14 MB | 43 MB |
| 6 | TristeAntônio Carlos Jobim | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 08:55 | 20 MB | 62 MB |
| 7 | Water PistolYusef Lateef | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 07:43 | 17 MB | 53 MB |
| 8 | Come Back Lucky | Wayne Escoffery | Play | 09:56 | 22 MB | 70 MB |
| 61 mins | 140 MB | |||||
| 61 mins | 427 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carl Allen | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 2 | Alan Brandt | Composer |
| 3 | Henry Creamer | Composer |
| 4 | Wayne Escoffery | Composer, Primary Artist, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor) |
| 5 | Glen Forest | Engineer |
| 6 | Aaron Goldberg | Piano |
| 7 | Bob Haymes | Composer |
| 8 | Antônio Carlos Jobim | Composer |
| 9 | Yusef Lateef | Composer |
| 10 | Turner Layton | Composer |
| 11 | Frank Nagel-Heyer | Producer |
| 12 | Sam Rivers | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |