Easy Jazz Conception Snidero

Far Far Away is a sonic powerhouse, leveraging every aspect of this magnificent, all-star quintet. Kurt Rosenwinkel's searing, innovative playing is on full display, Jim Snidero demonstrates a broadsword of a sound, and the rhythm section of Orrin Evans, Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth groove and interact at the highest levels of artistry.

If you trace the path of alto saxophonist Jim Snidero's varied output for Savant, you'll note transitions with regard to instrumentation and personnel: from organ combo to quartets with guitar or piano, to the animated quintet music of tributes to Miles (MD66) and Cannonball Adderley (Jubilation!). With Waves of Calm, the veteran altoist enters a period of zeroing in on the essentials. As the saxophonist himself says, “I find myself editing more and more. I've been playing saxophone for a long time, and could easily play a lot more notes…[but now] you're just looking for the right note at the right moment, searching for that one perfect thing.” With trumpeter Jeremy Pelt on half the tracks, piano phenom Orrin Evans at the Steinway & the Rhodes and Nat Reeves and Jonathan Barber completing the rhythm section, it would Jim Snidero has indeed found that”perfect thing.”

Jazz albums chronicle the lives of the artists who make them, but they also stand as emblems of a time period. When alto saxophonist Jim Snidero recorded Live at the Deer Head Inn in 2020 - an outing that earned 5 stars from DownBeat for its "spellbinding … incredible prowess and tender musicality throughout" - he connected to listeners and bandmates alike in a time of social distancing and brought them emotionally near, through the healing power of live music. To recall a comparable time of societal rupture, one thinks back to 9/11, on the very morning that Snidero and his colleagues were heading to Systems Two Studios in Brooklyn to record the album that became Strings (released by Milestone in 2003).