Tenor saxist Brent Gallaher continues the path laid down by the likes of Horace Silver and Art Blakey as he leads a snappy classic hard bop quintet with Alex Pope Norris/fh-tp, Dan Karlsberg/p, Aaron Jacobs/b and Anthony Lee/dr through an album of clever toe tappers.
Gallaher himself has a vintage rich sound in the vein of Shorter and Henderson, and he uses it well on the easy swingers like “Serendipity” and the assertive “Moving Forward.” In a quartet format, he glows during the aria “Gratitude” with Lee providing sensitive brushwork. Norris’ flugelhorn is autumnal on the hip and subtle groove of “No Apparent Reason” and he shows his buccinators in full bloom during Big Sur” while Karlsberg’s piano delights on ”Cycle.” Put this album alongside your classic Blue Note collection with pride.