Jim Snidero: Tippin’

Alto saxophonist Jim Snidero’s beefy tone and fleet attack evokes Cannonball Adderley in many places on Tippin’. At the same time, Snidero takes these comparisons and places them in a context that contrasts with Adderley’s setting of choice: the organ trio. This instrumentation marks a return to the saxophonist’s first serious gigs. After graduating from North Texas University and heading to New York, Snidero spent a year with Jack McDuff, an apprenticeship that expanded his horizons but left him burnt out on organ gigs. But no one can ignore that instrument’s lure for too long.

With Mike LeDonne at the B3, Paul Bollenback on guitar and Tony Reedus on drums, the quartet dives into a set of originals and standards. Snidero, who has since worked with Tom Harrell and Toshiko Akiyoshi and as a leader, sounds excited to be blowing an organ blues again on the title track. The sly stop-start “Let’s Be Frank” pays tribute to another former boss, Frank Wess, and LeDonne’s rapid “Young Like” salutes one of his instrument’s masters, Larry Young. When the quartet digs into the old favorites, they don’t play with the same fervor found in the originals. “The More I See You,” “Lover Man” and “You Stepped Out of a Dream” appear in a row, mid-album, and the results sound unspectacular and bog down the mood of the disc.

Originally Published April 1, 2008