Willie Morris – Attentive Listening
(Posi-Tone Data, PR8254. Album assessment by Julian Maynard-Smith)

Willie Morris is a younger tenor saxophonist initially from St Louis, and Attentive Listening is his second album as chief after Dialog Starter (2023), additionally on Posi-Tone. On this session he’s joined by 4 jazz veterans: alto saxophonist Patrick Cornelius (twenty years on the New York scene, and chief or co-leader of ten albums); pianist Jon Davis (who’s performed with greats equivalent to Joe Henderson and Stan Getz, and spent a number of years performing with Jaco Pastorius); bassist Boris Kozlov (two Grammies, and long-time bassist, arranger and musical director for the assorted Mingus Dynasty bands); and drummer Rudy Royston (educator in addition to performer, with a 30-year profession and appearances on over 50 jazz releases).

It’s august firm for a younger participant however Morris simply holds his personal, reaching a tone, phrasing and fluency much like his main affect Joe Henderson. ‘I spent a three-year interval in my early twenties,’ he’s stated, ‘listening to virtually nothing however his albums.’ One other affect could be (maybe inevitably, for a tenor participant) John Coltrane, judging by how the album opens: the spacious starting of ‘Water Fountain of Youth’ jogged my memory of ‘Psalm’ from A Love Supreme, earlier than kicking up a number of gears into a decent and quick modal quantity that wouldn’t be misplaced on a Miles album from one among his two nice quintets. It’s the primary of 5 originals penned by Morris. ‘Terminal Velocity’ is a young ballad with the same temper to McCoy Tyner’s ‘Seek for Peace’ (which, by the way, featured Joe Henderson in its authentic model);‘The Imitation Sport’ is brisk post-bop; ‘To Worlds Unknown’ is one other quiet reflective quantity; and the stop-start really feel of ‘Delusion of Understanding’ is probably a nod to Morris’s assertion that ‘human behaviour is way too complicated to completely perceive’.

The remaining 5 numbers embody two originals from the band’s alto saxophonist Cornelius, and two from the band’s pianist Jon Davis. The primary Cornelius quantity is a stunning bossa referred to as ‘Leaving Paradise’, on which Cornelius switches to alto flute and Royston provides percussion. It was impressed by a return journey from a trip, and judging by the piece’s sunny temper I can’t assist imagining it was a seaside vacation someplace tropical. Cornelius’s different contribution is a rhythm adjustments quantity referred to as ‘Et Tu, Caribou?’ Performed with pleasure, verve and a powerful bebop really feel, it’s virtually a lifeless ringer for Charlie Parker’s ‘Moose the Mooch’ – a debt wittily acknowledged within the tune’s identify, a caribou (N American for reindeer) being a smaller model of the deer household than the large moose.

The primary Davis quantity is a cheerful post-bop quantity referred to as ‘Shifting Proper Alongside’ and the second is the album’s nearer, ‘Daly Minor Blues’, which is a tenor/piano duet. The latter was initially meant as an ensemble piece, however Davis and Morris have been working by the tune collectively not realising that the tape was already rolling, and the consequence was so good they determined to maintain it. Nice resolution, as a result of it has the right feeling of spontaneity and intimacy for closing an album, in addition to offering distinction from the ensemble items.

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The one cowl is ‘La Mesha’, a ballad penned by trumpeter Kenny Dorham and initially carried out by the Joe Henderson quintet on Henderson’s 1963 album Web page One. It’s a quartet efficiency and noticeably shorter than the unique (5:21 versus 9:08) however that’s nonetheless loads of time for a dreamy piano opening and for Morris to unfurl a heartfelt solo that does Henderson’s reminiscence proud.

And talking of solos, the album has loads from each chief and co-composers Cornelius and Davis, however not from Kozlov and Royston: a slight disgrace as their rhythmic help all through is great and worthy of reward, and I’m positive their solos would have been improbable too. Additionally price praising is the recording high quality, which all through is huge, heat, immersive, and finely detailed.

LINK: Posi-Tone Data