Saxophonist
Jim Snidero turns his adept post-bop skills inward on the introspective, if still engaging 2019 session
Waves of Calm. The album, which comes on the heels of several exuberant projects including 2016's
Miles Davis-influenced
MD66, and 2018's
Jubilation! Celebrating Cannonball Adderley, is in part a response to his father's battle with Parkinson's Disease -- a struggle that ended with his passing shortly after the album was finished. While by no means a ballads album, though there are several here including a gorgeously moving rendition of "Old Folks,"
Waves of Calm is a work of far-eyed rumination that leaves plenty of room for searching, harmonically creative improvisation. Joining
Snidero once again is his
Jubilation! bandmate trumpeter
Jeremy Pelt, as well as pianist
Orrin Evans, bassist
Nat Reeves, and drummer
Jonathan Barber. Together they play with a warmth and style that is the epitome of post-bop sophistication. In some ways, the album is a balanced mix of the influences
Snidero has been investigating since the early 2010s. Both "Visions," which features
Evans on Fender Rhodes, and the angular "Truth" evoke
Miles Davis' late-'60s modalism. Similarly, "Dad Song" is dusky Latin groover that brings to mind the classic hard bop recordings of
Horace Silver. Equally evocative is the languid title track, which pulls the listener along as if floating on a boat in a soft evening breeze. As the title implies,
Waves of Calm is the sound of
Snidero taking a deep, tension-relieving breath before jumping back into the flow of life. ~ Matt Collar