AndreW dicKeson WiTh eric ALexAnder

Is That So? (www.andrewdickeson.com)

On this is all-analogue, all-valve recording, made with the four players in the same room (without headphones) you hear the connection, the immediacy and the warmth of sound. Drummer Andrew Dickeson teamed New York tenor player Eric Alexander with pianist Wayne Kelly and bassist Ashley Turner on mostly standard material. Alexander combines a hardedged sound and a penchant for fleetness (sometimes reminiscent of Johnny Griffin) with a gift for making potentially hectic phases of the music sound effortless. The latter quality is shared by Dickeson, whose mallet playing on Invitation imbues the piece with a sense of mystery that the others sustain. It is not so much the sort of album to electrify as to reassure with its grooves, although a re-imagined The Surrey with the Fringe on Top comes as a fun surprise. John Shand