Jane Ira Bloom - The Red Quartets (1999) FLAC

Jane Ira Bloom has not only created an identifiable sound on the soprano sax, but as this recording aurally illustrates, she is an inventive composer capable of evoking three-dimensional life portraits, mental videos where the listener is both the audience and the director. She is joined here by pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Bobby Previte. Bloom's lyrical and weighty tones yield literary solos that develop notes and phrases in Hemingwayesque fashion, as evidenced by the spellbinding, dream-timed "Always Hope"; the chamber-waltz "Tell Me Your Diamonds"; the intricate, Afro-Tropical beats of "Jax Calypso"; "It's a Corrugated World"; and the spylike melody mazes on "Five Full Fathoms." On "Monks Rec Room," Bloom and Hersch perceptively capture Thelonious Monk's playfulness and humor, and two classic American popular songs, "Time After Time" and "How Deep Is the Ocean"--which interlocks with an avant-impressionistic intro entitled "Chagall"--showcase Bloom's gift for mixing the old with the new with her soprano sax spells.