Jane Ira Bloom
Wingwalker
Outline Music
www.janeirabloom.com
By George W. Harris

Soprano saxist Jane Ira Bloom is one of the very few artists who have stuck to their collective guns and served faithfully their musical path. Not mainstream, but not on the stratospheric avant-garde, she has always had a searching musical calling, yet never veered off of the accessible trail. She joins together here with Dawn Clement/p-key, Mark Helias/b and Bobby Previte/dr for an engaging musical journey that travels from Weather Report-ish electronica (“Frontiers In Space”) to ruminating duets with Clement (“Ending Red Songs”). The whole band is able to create a rivulet of deep and bluesy grooves as on “Life On Cloud Nine” or can delve into some experimental nuances on the cerebrally celebrating “Freud’s Convertible.” As to Bloom herself, it she comes across as a titan of the horn that can do no wrong; not a wrong note, sound or direction, and as far as tone goes, just give an ear to the closing solo reading of “I Could Have Danced All Night” and you’ll never think of Audrey Hepburn again. You simply won’t want it to end. Wondrous music here.