For All We Know (Savant)
Jim Snidero
Released February 16, 2024
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2024
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
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About:
With his alto sound soaring over a sax trio format on “For All We Know,” Jim Snidero demonstrates why he is a critical link in the alto saxophone lineage. Snidero pares down the soundscape to its essence, utilizing a set of standards to illuminate a rare combination of virtuosity, musicality and depth along with jazz masters Peter Washington-bass and Joe Farnsworth-drums. With a tone quality that’s second to none — Stereophile cited his sound as “one of the richest and purest on the planet” — Jim Snidero has showcased an enviable resonance in myriad contexts over the better part of the past four decades and 25 previous releases. Now, placing himself in the most exposed setting he’s ever inhabited, Snidero reaches the apex on the alto saxophone.
Track Listing:
1. For All We Know 7:58
2. Naima 5:14
3. Love for Sale 6:21
4. Blackberry Winter 6:32
5. Parker’s Mood 5:19
6. Willow Weep for Me 6:33
7. My Funny Valentine 7:58
8. You Go to My Head 7:32
Personnel:
Jim Snidero: alto saxophone
Peter Washington: bass
Joe Farnsworth: drums
Recorded at Red Rock Recording Studio, Saylorsburg, PA on October 24, 2023, by Kent Heckman
Mixed and Mastered by David Darlington
Producer: Jim Snidero
Review:
Sometimes the simplest artistic statements can be the most compelling. This is what alto saxophonist Jim Snidero achieves on 2024’s For All We Know. His first album not to feature a chordal instrument, it finds him pairing down his quartet from 2021’s Live at Deer Inn and quintet from 2023’s Far Far Away to a trio with longtime associates bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Essentially a standards album, For All We Know is nonetheless an artfully rendered production with a stripped-down aesthetic that spotlights Snidero’s warm, vocal-like tone and painterly lines. One of the young bebop lions of the ’80s, Snidero has gotten even more assured with age, with his playing having evolved into a vibrant amalgam of Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. There’s a palpable sense of group interplay, especially between Snidero and Washington, whose partnership goes as far back as Snidero’s 1987 debut album, Mixed Bag. Together, they conjure an atmosphere of warm camaraderie, but it’s one that’s charged with a creative electricity as each player works to fill in the space left open by the lack of a chordal instrument. Without a piano or guitar in the way, Snidero has plenty of room to move, spiraling over Washington and Farnsworth’s woody grooves as he accents each melody with ever more colorful harmonic flourishes. It’s a cerebral, deconstructive vibe, yet one underscored with a lyrical romanticism, as on their opening rendition of the classic 1934 title track. Opening with a ballad is always a bold move, and the spare, midtempo romanticism of Snidero’s playing speaks to the intense focus at play throughout the album. Yet more ear-popping moments follow, including a poignantly rendered take on Alec Wilder and Loonis McGlohon’s folky song “Blackberry Winter” and a smiling, soulfully grooving reading of the standard “Willow Weep for Me.” Equally bold is his reworking of John Coltrane’s “Naima,” yet another ballad placed early on the album. It starts with a hushed bass solo from Washington in which his bluesy lines refract against the shimmer of Farnsworth’s delicate cymbal work before Snidero enters, playing the melody with a glowing, moon-like resonance. All of the songs on For All We Know are ones most jazz fans will have a deep familiarity with, yet Snidero, Washington, and Farnsworth make them sound profoundly new, as if each one were their own.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
