Doug Stone - Motion (2020)

Today, saxophonist Doug Stone lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is an assistant professor of jazz studies at the University of Louisiana. But during his long career in the jazz field, he lived a lot and worked in major jazz centers such as Chicago and New York, and traveled around the country and abroad even more, performing with different compositions. He is best known for his work on the Bebop Nouveau Band of Maynard Ferguson. In addition, he created many works for various collectives as a composer and arranger. Former DownBeat editor Jim Shantor speaks of him exclusively in sublime tones: “Stone is a saxophonist who has learned to use his amazing technique and harmonious insight to produce solos that are simultaneously creative, complex, passionate and memorable. He is distinguished by an amazing technique, but he never abuses it ... "

Well, the new album of Doug Stone Motion gives everyone an opportunity to make sure of his skill. It is recorded in a quartet format with a guitar, double bass and drums. Doug did not include the author's material in the program of the album, there are solid jazz classics of different years: Ves Montgomery (Full House), Billy Streyhorn (Lotus Blossom), Jerome Kern (Nobody Else But Me), almost mandatory for many Jobs (Brigas Nunca Mais). The title composition of Jimmy Rainey, opening the album, as if representing each of the members of the quartet - here everyone received a solo episode. But more often the saxophone and guitar are in the lead, sometimes working in unison, sometimes echoing in the call and response manner, as it exemplarily looks in Full House. Loved Stone in Grant Green's ballad Jean de Fleur. In general, the album was made according to the usual post-bop patterns and made very high quality. In this regard, I thought about this. It is clear that Doug Stone does not belong to that fifty representatives of the jazz elite, whose names are always well-known. But his work is also an occasion to feel and realize the highest level of mastery, so to speak, of the middle section of American jazz, the nutrient medium from which world-class stars emerge.