Plays (Savant)
Nicole Glover
Released March 29, 2024
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
All About Jazz Best Albums of 2024
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kBKdYul9oVA_92Xez1t1J3X0xy8YYOnvc
Spotify:
About:
Nicole Glover has been getting some well-deserved exposure as a side-person recently but this tenor saxophonist is best appreciated on her own albums, where she fronts a saxophone-bass-drums trio. Glover’s trio features a special guest on the recording is vibes master, Steve Nelson, of whom Glover says, “He’s incredible to work with because he is just a phenomenal musician… He enhances everything he is a part of.” This foundation provides two streams of sound (three with the vibes) beneath Glover’s improvisations, allowing her complete freedom to be lyrical or driving as she chooses while maintaining the aural identity of the ensemble.
Track Listing:
1. Open or Close (Ornette Coleman) 4:52
2. The Fox (Kenny Dorham) 4:47
3. The A-Side (Tyrone Allen II) 5:01
4. Munsoon (Lucky Thompson) 5:09
5. Inception (McCoy Tyner) 6:01
6. One Second, Please (Elmo Hope) 4:59
7. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face (Lerner & Lowe) 5:51
8. Blues for Mel (Nicole Glover) 5:50
Personnel:
Nicole Glover: tenor saxophone
Tyrone Allen: bass
Kayvon Gordon: drums
with
Steve Nelson: vibraphone (2, 6–8)
Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio, em Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, by Maureen Sickler
Mixing and Mastering: Katsuhiko Naito
Photography: Anna Yatskevich
Design: Irem Ela Yildizeli
Produced by Jeremy Pelt
Executive Producer: Barney Fields
Review:
Folks who think the mantra “jazz is dead” denotes the genre’s true condition might reconsider when they hear Plays, Nicole Glover’s second Jeremy Pelt-produced swinging affair for Savant. Propelled by an endlessly on-point trio of bassist Tyrone Allen and drummer Kayvon Gordon, and augmented on four tunes by vibraphonist Steve Nelson, Glover brings forth the full measure of her formidable chops, creativity, discipline, erudition and narrative gifts while navigating five less-traveled songs, a standard and an original apiece by her and Allen. T he end result could easily bear the title “The State of the Tenor Circa 2024.” Never rushed, deploying a malleable, vocalized sound that refracts the tonal personalities of her inspirations into her own argot, Glover addresses the “tradition” on its own terms of engagement. She generates fresh melodies on sophisticated change-tunes like Kenny Dorham’s “The Fox,” Elmo Hope’s “One Second, Please” and Lucky Thompson’s “Munsoon.” On “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” and Allen’s stately “The A-Side,” her well-calibrated vibrato and penetrating concision raise the spirits of master “boudoir tenors” T hompson and Gene Ammons. Her torrential solo on McCoy Tyner’s “Inception” seems to speculate on how John Coltrane might have addressed his pianist’s tune in 1965, had he been inclined to perform it. She ends the recital with an original, “Blues For Mel,” which sounds like something Coltrane might have written (but didn’t) for Coltrane Plays The Blues. It’s dedicated to drummer Mel Brown, a key mentor during Glover’s formative years in Portland, Oregon. He taught her well.
Ted Panken (DownBeat)
