Alex LoRe & Weirdear

Three brief interludes on Brooklyn alto saxophonist Alex LoRe’s CD are entitled “Radiance” and the term suggests the lightness and brightness his quartet brings to the interpretation of his 10 compositions. The saxophonist also airily tone trills and flutters throughout without weakening the responsive or reflective themes of some of the tunes. Bassist Desmond White’s thick string pops power the bottom while pianist Glenn Zaleski comps effectively, often uniting his measured elaborations with LoRe’s soaring reed expositions. As for drummer Allan Mednard, he demonstrates that proper cadences can be created to impel the program using just occasional cymbal sizzles and the unforced accents of subtle drum beats.

Most of the tracks are as buoyant as are the tunes from LoRe, who has extensive experience with jazz and notated music ensembles. But compositions can be serious as well. “Green”, a shout out to the saxophonist’s mentor, alto saxophonist/educator Bunky Green, is a near-Blues. It’s taken at a faster clip than most of the other pieces and with a short simple piano break and bass stops evolves through LoRe’s expressive peeps and triple tonguing. Dual piano/sax elaborations set up “At Shore”, the CD’s freest track. Moving upwards and then downwards for the finale, the exposition includes LoRe’s tongue slides and tone fragmentation expressed on top of bowed double bass thrusts, keyboard plinks and dead-on raps from the drummer.

As well as compositional smarts, LoRe has created a luminescent and glossy individual tone for his saxophone. The drawback to this is that it often seems as if he’s playing one unbroken solo rather than expressing individual comments on each narrative in turn. Other than that concern – which will probably soon be overcome – Evening Will Find Itself can be heard as a notable instance of contemporary mainstream jazz.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Stripes 2. Face Unseen 3. Fauxlosophy 4. Silent Ship 5. Radiance I 6. Green 7. Radiance II 8. Underground and Back 9. At Shore 10. Radiance III

Personnel: Alex LoRe (alto saxophone); Glenn Zaleski (piano); Desmond White (bass) and Allan Mednard (drums)