ADAM SCHROEDER & MARK MASTERS

CT!

Schroeder, baritone saxophone; Masters, arrangements; 11 others. Capri 74170-2 (CD, available as LP). 2024. Schroeder, prod.; Talley Sherwood, eng.

PERFORMANCE SONICS

Adam Schroeder and Mark Masters are among the best in jazz at what they do, which is play baritone saxophone and arrange for big band, respectively. They are West Coast guys who would be more famous if they lived in New York.

Masters likes to make albums featuring the work of a single composer. He has arranged music by Clifford Brown, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, and Alec Wilder. Sometimes he chooses less well-known composers like Jimmy Knepper and Dewey Redman for tributes. CT!, a tribute to Clark Terry, belongs in that category.

If you didn’t know otherwise, you might assume that these high-class big band tracks were by Duke Ellington or Count Basie. (Terry played in both orchestras.) As a composer, Terry preferred the blues or “I Got Rhythm” changes. Most of these tunes are outbreaks of life-affirming energy and exuberance, like “In Orbit” and “Ode to Pres.” A few are slower and lusher, like “Slow Boat” and “Michelle.” Whatever the tempo, they swing with a natural grace you don’t hear much anymore. Masters’s elegant arrangements shape this compact, 12-piece orchestra into a well-oiled machine, a sleek vintage race car.

Schroeder, who played in Terry’s big band, was the organizer of this project and the primary soloist. He can knock you down with the power of his big horn (as on “Serenade to a Bus Seat”), but he tames his unwieldy instrument to express nuanced emotion (“Groundhog”). This California band also contains first-rate musicians including tenor saxophonists Bob Sheppard and Kirsten Edkins and drummer Peter Erskine.

In press notes, Masters says, “This style of music and this type of record are becoming more and more infrequent.” He is right about that. We need to enjoy music like CT! while we still can.