Wayne Krantz: David Binney with Wayne Krantz

David Binney: Aliso /with Wayne Krantz

David Binney (alto saxophonist-composer); Wayne Krantz (Guitar); Jacob Sacks (pianist ); Eivind Opsvik(bassist); Dan Weiss(drummer)


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For his fourth Criss Cross leader date, alto saxophonist-composer David Binney convenes his primary New York working quartet of the 2000s (pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and drummer Dan Weiss), adds to the mix guitar hero Wayne Krantz, with whom he works frequently in an electronica-oriented group, and augments the proceedings with several appearances by British pianist-composer John Escreet, a frequent partner in recent years. The leader plays with deep emotion and the concision of an old master; it's as strong a date as any in Binney's now sizable discography.

This is a hot record , much expected from a musician like David Binney. Everyone is rocking it out , especially John Coltrane’s “Africa” receives an intense quintet treatment from skronk-rich Krantz tour de force that builds the energy to requisite levels for the penultimate fanfare. Binney remarks: “I wanted to stretch out on an open, vamping Coltrane energy tune.”

Krantz plays with similar energy on the title track and set opener, named for the street on which Binney grew up in Carpenteria, California , he follows Binney, who projects an outcat tonality on a torrential solo, with a melodic turn that has an almost acoustic feel.