Stories, Dreams Inspiration by Bobby Selvaggio
On his seventh album as a bandleader, Cleveland saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio achieves a sense of intimacy befitting a set dedicated to his child. The ensembles Selvaggio assembled for Stories, Dreams, Inspirations: For My Boy might not be quite a big band in the traditional sense, but there are often multiple musicians on the same instrument on any give track. To his credit, on arrangements that often find serene compromise between the kind of gloss most associated with smooth jazz and cool bop's freedom to create on the fly, Selvaggio doesn’t hog the solo spotlight. The often-lengthy compositions create a kind of extended suite with minimal silence between tracks. If the care Selvaggio put into crafting this statement of affection for the boy who inspired it says anything about his parenting skills, he must be a swell dad, too.
