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Dan Stern

Traces

Kvetch Records KVRJ 0001

UK-born to South African parents, saxophonist / clarinettist Dan Stern took lessons from David Liebman after being inspired to take up jazz by hearing Michael Brecker at Ronnie Scott's; the success of this course can be measured on this, his debut album, which features Liebman in addition to a punchy but cohesive band: fellow reeds players David Binney and Tim Garland, pianists Gwilym Simcock and Phil Markowitz, bassist Phil Donkin and drummer Asaf Sirkis.

The album is divided into two sections, the first a five-piece suite, 'Traces', featuring the above players; the second, the six-part 'Mirrors', featuring Stern alone, on overdubbed saxophone and clarinet. The former suite ranges between pleasantly nervy, restless themes and more meditative fare, with intelligently arranged harmonised reed arrangements from which various soloists, chief among them the resourceful and confident Stern himself, emerge where appropriate, all flawlessly driven by the excellent rhythm team of Donkin, Simcock and the superbly responsive Sirkis; the latter, culminating in absorbing arrangements of sacred music by Palestrina and Perotin, showcases the ethereal, haunting sound of Stern's reeds.

Whether in bustling, streamlined yet absorbingly tricksy sextet mode (occasionally reminiscent of some of Binney's recent work) or solo, though, Stern's compositional/arranging strength is impressive throughout this absorbing album ä clearly a man to watch.