DC tenor saxman Peter Fraize is joined here by Leland Nakamura on drums, and Steve Zerlin on bass. Fraize has an attractive, kinda post-Rollins, somewhat dry flavored tenor sound with good tone. And while there are things to like about this album, this listener was not engaged for a full disc ride. The programming lacks spice, the three musicians, though promising, fail to vary their instrumentation from track to track for the pure sake of freshness, thus a certain ear malaise sets in after awhile. Frankly horn trios have a slight odor of self-indulgence and should perhaps be left to the true titans of the horns. Hey Peter, don’t be so skimpy (44:56) on the minutes next time.
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