Sam Taylor Quartet – Along The Way (2017) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

One of the finer young tenor players on the New York scene in the last decade, Sam Taylor squares off against Philadelphia’s acclaimed tenor man, Larry McKenna on “Along The Way”. Taylor and the elder McKenna don’t musically spar so much as put their equally rich saxophone sounds to good use in a spirited, cooperative effort in a warm program of standards that suits their unfettered bebop style.

Firstly, just in case it is not patently obvious, this Sam Taylor is not The Sam “The Man” Taylor, the American jazz and blues tenor saxophonist who famously used “honking” in his solos during his heyday in the 1950s and 60s. This Sam Taylor is a young Philadelphia native who is looking to find his niche in today’s tenor saxophone world. Perhaps that is the reason he hooked up with Larry McKenna ,the eighty year old tenor sax legend from the same city to record Along The Way for the Canadian label CellarLive.

This album is really two sessions. There are the five tracks with Larry McKenna and the four without his participation, and the contrast is significant. Taylor is just beginning his career, putting in the hours and developing his tone and ideas. At eighty, McKenna has done all that and although he may not have achieved the recognition he deserved, he is no less the player because of it. “Make Someone Happy” was written by Jule Stein with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the 1960 Broadway musical Do Re Mi. This version is a straight-ahead swinger with McKenna’s deeper tone tenor leading the way. Taylor comes is with a run through of the melody before each one takes a brief solo turn. This is not complicated stuff.

Tracklist:
01 – Make Someone Happy
02 – Fats Flats
03 – On The Trail
04 – Where Are You
05 – People Will Say We’re In Love
06 – The Close Things
07 – There’s No You
08 – Wild Is Love
09 – I Want More

Recorded by Tom Lazarus at Big Orange Sheep in Brooklyn, NY, on May 2, 2017.

Musicians:
Sam Taylor – tenor saxophone
Larry McKenna – tenor saxophone on “1,2,6,7,9”
Jeb Patton – piano
Neal Miner – acoustic bass
Pete Van Nostrand – drums

Download:

mqs.link_SamTayl0rQuartetAl0ngTheWay2017Q0buz2496.part1.rar
mqs.link_SamTayl0rQuartetAl0ngTheWay2017Q0buz2496.part2.rar