Eleven years younger than Lovano, Douglas is a jazz composer with greater than 500 revealed titles to his name and a jazz educator along with being a performer. But leaving personal politics aside, Sanford’s piece should succeed or fail on its own deserves, not its political meaning, and this it does brilliantly. Sanford develops his themes, brief and atonal though they are, in arresting and unique methods. Much of the music is definitely performed quietly, and when the music does improve in volume it does so gradually, in managed crescendos which are them followed by dinimuendos.
Yes, there are a few lumbering moments in this music, however simply as many if no more which are whimsical and even enjoyable. It really is a pleasure to hear one thing that doesn’t fit into a formula or a mould pre-created by others in his subject. The sound quality of the recording is …