Jane Fair Quartet - Chances Are (2007)

It's impossible to overstate the role saxophonist Jane Fair has played for women in jazz.

It's remarkable that Jane Fair who is rarely heard live should have chops like an artist who plays nightly. Let us put one additional matter to bed right away: she is the saxophonist that Duke Ellington never had, but may have given a dance on a dime to write for. For Jane Fair is not just lyrical, but poetic as if Dylan Thomas came to life and took up the saxophone and when soloing on "Chances Are," a song that loosely recalls the changes on "Memories of You," even Whitmanesque. Fair makes her tenor wake up and sing like a horn come to life. Her compositions are also incredibly complete in the way that perhaps only fellow saxophonist Wayne Shorter's are.