Eric Hall

While solo and duo recordings do not come in all sizes, they indeed have various shapes. Slam Stewart and Don Byas, as the only two musicians to make a nearly snowed-out 1945 Town Hall gig, formed an impromptu, but unquestionably musically satisfying duo (remembered largely for their lickety-split version of “I Got Rhythm”). Jim Hall and Bill Evans are dependably sublime on Undercurrent. Turning to solo work, Evans waxed Alone as a solo pianist, creatively entering a relatively crowded recorded space that also includes contributions from Thelonious Monk (Solo Monk, Alone in San Francisco), Art Tatum’s Piano Starts Here, and Ray Bryant’s Alone With the Blues, not to mention Concord’s voluminous Maybeck Recital Hall series. Solo jazz saxophone recordings, on the other hand, are few and far between, making Eric Alexander’s solo contributions to the recording here all the more unique and important. And although the living master Sonny Rollins recorded in this format (The Solo Concert), contributions here seem most often to coalesce around the avant-garde (Anthony Braxton’s For Alto and Roscoe Mitchell’s Solo Saxophone Concerts).

While solo and duo recordings do not come in all sizes, they indeed have various shapes. Slam Stewart and Don Byas, as the only two musicians to make a nearly snowed-out 1945 Town Hall gig, formed an impromptu, but unquestionably musically satisfying duo (remembered largely for their lickety-split version of “I Got Rhythm”). Jim Hall and Bill Evans are dependably sublime on Undercurrent. Turning to solo work, Evans waxed Alone as a solo pianist, creatively entering a relatively crowded recorded space that also includes contributions from Thelonious Monk (Solo Monk, Alone in San Francisco), Art Tatum’s Piano Starts Here, and Ray Bryant’s Alone With the Blues, not to mention Concord’s voluminous Maybeck Recital Hall series. Solo jazz saxophone recordings, on the other hand, are few and far between, making Eric Alexander’s solo contributions to the recording here all the more unique and important. And although the living master Sonny Rollins recorded in this format (The Solo Concert), contributions here seem most often to coalesce around the avant-garde (Anthony Braxton’s For Alto and Roscoe Mitchell’s Solo Saxophone Concerts).

While solo and duo recordings do not come in all sizes, they indeed have various shapes. Slam Stewart and Don Byas, as the only two musicians to make a nearly snowed-out 1945 Town Hall gig, formed an impromptu, but unquestionably musically satisfying duo (remembered largely for their lickety-split version of “I Got Rhythm”). Jim Hall and Bill Evans are dependably sublime on Undercurrent. Turning to solo work, Evans waxed Alone as a solo pianist, creatively entering a relatively crowded recorded space that also includes contributions from Thelonious Monk (Solo Monk, Alone in San Francisco), Art Tatum’s Piano Starts Here, and Ray Bryant’s Alone With the Blues, not to mention Concord’s voluminous Maybeck Recital Hall series. Solo jazz saxophone recordings, on the other hand, are few and far between, making Eric Alexander’s solo contributions to the recording here all the more unique and important. And although the living master Sonny Rollins recorded in this format (The Solo Concert), contributions here seem most often to coalesce around the avant-garde (Anthony Braxton’s For Alto and Roscoe Mitchell’s Solo Saxophone Concerts).