Search - Walt Weiskopf :: Simplicity

Simply the best by a great tenor sax player!

Erik Werkman | Utrecht, Netherlands | 09/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first of an excellent series of recordings for the Dutch label Criss Cross Jazz and in my opinion it is still the best one. It is also the ideal album to start with for checking out the qualities of tenorist Walt Weiskopf: a wonderful sound in the Coltrane tradition, melodic but with a nice edge to it, writing his own beautiful compositions (be it ballads, uptempo burners or waltzes) and equally thrilling arrangements. Here he works with a sextet, consisting of Andy Fusco on altsax, Conrad Herwig on trombone, his brother Joel Weiskopf on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Billy Drummond on drums. Seven of the nine compositions are of his own hand. The other two compositions are "Lazy Afternoon", performed as a lovely waltz, and the seldom heard ballad "The Sounds Around The House". He knows how to vary the instrumentation of the sextet in the different compositions and his own compositions are just first class: they are not just blowing vehicles, but there is a great combination of melody, nice twists and turns, but keeping it sounding natural and swinging hard.So if you want a tenor sax player in the tradition of John Coltrane, performing his own excellent material (which is no easy listening), with a distintive voice and a modern sound, surrounded by great cats, then you better check Walt Weiskopf out. His other Criss Cross albums are great as well, with particular favorites from my side: "Song For My Mother" (with his Nonet) and "A World Away" (Quartet, with organ, guitar and drums)."