Eric Alexander With Strings

Eric Alexander
With Strings
High Note Records

Eric Alexander has over three decades, established himself as a tenor saxophone virtuoso with considerable technical skill. His fluent, stirring work has gained him countless fans among his fellow musicians as well as listeners. As Steve Futterman observes in the liner notes, Alexander's technical proficiency "can often obscure gifts for lyricism and openly expressive offerings… ." This recording with strings fulfills a long-held dream for Alexander. It has him and his quartet of David Hazeltine on piano, John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums augmented by a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Dave Rivello.

This release allows Alexander's lyricism and gift for embellishing melody to shine against the lush string setting as his rhythm section pushes the performances along. Things get off to a terrific start on his original "Gently." Then there is a superb rendition of Leonard Bernstein's "Some Other Time," where he takes off on with some highly animated, not merely pretty playing. Other highpoints include the euphonic rendition of Horace Silver's "Lonely Woman," and a hauntingly beautiful version of the standard (not the B.B. King hit), "The Thrill Is Gone," with lovely flute and french horn heard in the swing orchestra.

While the playing time is relatively short, Eric Alexander's playing is terrific, placing his lyrical expressiveness at the forefront. While this CD was recorded in 2013, it was worth the wait to have it released.

I received a review copy from High Note/ Savant Records. While without strings, this video has Eric Alexander performing "Embraceable You" with a group that included the late Harold Mabern on piano, John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums.