Toward Grace

I had tried everything: therapy, medication, meditation. Everything except God. Lily Burana was in crisis. Desperate for rescue from her depression and anxiety, the punk-rock-girl-turned-writer feared she would die. She was down to her remedy of last resort: faith.

Iris Grace is a beautiful little girl who, from a very young age, barely communicated, avoided social interaction with other people, and rarely smiled. Both before her diagnosis of autism and after, she seemed trapped in her own world, unable to connect with those around her. One day, her mother brought home a Maine Coon kitten for Iris.

Add JD Allen to the short list of saxophonists adept at folding religious faith into improvised music in an ordered origami fashion that doesn’t undermine either one. Grace marks his second session for Savant and a departure from the trio format he’s commonly turned to as a leader. The disc’s also a bit lengthier than past efforts, although each of the 11 tracks still hovers around six minutes at the outside, according enough time for Allen and his band to delve deep into his melodic reservoir, but preserving space enough to keep the pace from ever slipping into stasis.