Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan brings here his trademark “contrafacts” (a music making method that shares the chord progressions with other compositions) approach to this first SteepleChase leader outing challenging us (maybe?) to guess the tunes he is employing.
Smulyan whose professional career took shape by joining Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herds at age 22 (1978) has won Critics’ and Readers’ Poll awards numerous times by Downbeat and JazzTimes, among others.
GARY SMULYAN baritone saxophone
DAVID WONG bass
RODNEY GREEN drums
Recorded April 2017
1 VODKA (Mal Waldron) 7:34
2 DEEP PEOPLE (Jimmy Guiffre) 5:24
3 TALE OF THE FINGERS (Paul Chambers) 5:42
4 COHN PONE (Al Cohn/Nick Travis) 6:32
5 MOODAMORPHOSIS (Gil Fuller, Dave Burns) 7:10
6 AHMA SEE YA Ted Curson) 7:46
7 I’VE CHANGED (Gary Smulyan) 5:22
8 ON THE MINUTE (John Eardley) 6:00
9 HANID (Coleman Hawkins) 7:35
