Ancestors - Double Tenor Quintet

Bassist Mario Pavone just keeps on keeping on with yet another fine recording in his expanding and substantive discography. The towering twin tenor approach is the focal point for Ancestors, utilizing two of the finest young, experienced, and individualistic saxophone players in modern jazz music — Tony Malaby and Jimmy Greene. Add the underappreciated but awesome pianist Peter Madsen and the reliable juggernaut of a drummer Gerald Cleaver, and you have the makings for a truly superior combo, one of the best Pavone has ever fronted. Also an advanced composer, Pavone wrote all of this original music, but he has help from arrangers Steve Bernstein, Dave Ballou, and Michael Musillami. The opener and title track is a complex post-bop piece with bass and piano unison and a sonic quality from Malaby and Greene that is very similar to the distinctive contemporary pairing of Dave Binney and Chris Potter (see Binney's great CD South on the ACT label). Cleaver's churning rhythms drive the hard bop modal "Tomes" as you hear a tenor/soprano tandem. Hip and lithe funk is laid down by Pavone during "Iskmix" and "Pachuca," the former with the horns sighing, Madsen cutting loose, and Cleaver seemingly explosive at will, the latter a 6/8-metered brawny and bluesy freight train steaming for Memphis. The late Andrew Hill was a powerful influence for Pavone, and a spastic, active intro by the bassist lights the fuse for modal clarion choruses by the horns in stop-start, frantic, and constrained segments within a framework for "Andrew." Gliding in 4/4 within a 6/8 motif, Afro-Latin clicking percussion taps into whirling dervish dual soprano saxes on "Arc for Puppy." Back in 6/8, the richly hued sounds from the tenors fly sideways, parallel, then into counterpoint on the impressive "Strata Blue." While Pavone's recordings are generally reliable and pointedly original, this effort is close to his very best, and deserves consideration for best jazz CD of 2008. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi