Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers - CD

ENGLISH

An energetic, exuberant player, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims is perhaps best known for his membership in the famous "four brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's late-forties Herd, and for his longstanding small-group collaborations with fellow tenorman Al Cohn. Yet neither of those pigeonholes do his abilities justice: Sims was a remarkably complete musician, comfortable playing everything from hard bop to swing to Dixieland. And though most clearly drawing his musical delineation from Lester Young, Sims was also capable of a raw, free-swinging style that hinted at the influence of the Texas tenor school and such boppers as Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray. His dynamism is evident on&nbsp;<i>Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers</i><span>: the 10-song compilation, recorded in 1975, uses such jazz improvisation stalwarts as "The Man I Love," "I Got Rhythm," "Summertime," and "Embraceable You" to showcase his absolute command of the modern jazz vocabulary. If the record label, Norman Granz's Pablo, was overly reliant on a core group of technically breathtaking but somewhat predictable players, the presence of label stars pianist Oscar Peterson and guitarist Joe Pass as sidemen here proved a blessing.&nbsp;</span><i>--Fred Goodman</i>