Ballads in Blue

With 2021's elegant New Standards, saxophonist Kenny G wryly inserts himself into the pantheon of American Popular Songbook composers performing and writing songs that feel as if they were written during the heyday of traditional pop in the '50s and '60s. The album is G's first studio production since 2015's Brazilian Nights and while it certainly hews to his distinctive crossover style it's steeped in a lush orchestral atmosphere that evokes the classic traditional pop of artists like Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, and Ella Fitzgerald. Of course, these aren't swinging big-band numbers, but hushed and intimate ballads with just enough R&B keyboard, bass, and guitar textures to keep things contemporary.

Eric Alexander has had many opportunities to record as a leader for several different labels, though producer Tetsuo Hara, owner of the Japanese label Venus, has become a huge fan, recording him almost any time he travels to New York City. This 2008 session finds the tenor saxophonist with several musicians with whom he is very familiar, including pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth (the latter two who play with Alexander in the co-op band One for All)…

Pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist George Mraz do not really stick to the plot of the title, playing a few bop standards that are neither blues nor ballads (such as "Scrapple from the Apple," "Star Eyes" and "How High the Moon"), in addition to some blues and ballads (most notably Tom McIntosh's haunting "With Malice Toward None"). The intimate and mostly lightly swinging music is fine, but one does miss the momentum that would have been provided by a drummer.