'Live at Smalls Jazz Club' by George Coleman
Saxophonist George Coleman’s career began in the early 1950s backing B.B. King. “Well, I’m more adventurous now,” he says, modestly enough, in the liner notes for his latest album, recorded at New York’s Smalls Jazz Club on March 15, 2022. In the ‘60s Coleman played with Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis before establishing his solo career. On Live at Smalls, he performs one of Davis’s most luscious compositions, “Four,” and circles around a lifetime of influences. An echo of the blues can be heard in his ruminative take on “My Funny Valentine,” whose flexible time frame gives pianist Spike Wilner and bassist Peter Washington plenty of room to muse on their instruments. Throughout the session, whether on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s
Lively “Meditation” or Hoagy Carmichael’s endearing “Nearness of You,” Coleman’s tenor sax runs like clear water across and around the melodies, reshaping them in a river of imaginative play.
Stream or download Live at Smalls Jazz Club by George Coleman at Amazon here.
