An easier listen these recordings maybe, but Sax Section occupies a unique place in Popkins’s discography and ultimately is a rewarding experience.
Lifeline Records LR105CD
Lenny Popkin (tenor saxophone)
Recorded 2019
You’d be mistaken for thinking that this is a solo saxophone album by Lenny Popkin, and it indeed it is. However, the title of the recording can be taken literally as this is a one-man overdubbed saxophone section, and the results are startling, producing a music that is at once dense and packed with detail, yet also light and airy in parts.
At what might at first appear a daunting prospect, with not a saxophone choir or quartet comprising different members of the saxophone family to be heard, but the just sound of one man’s tenor saxophone multitracked in a series of predominantly improvised pieces is quite an undertaking for both musician and listener.
Variety and tonal interest, and the ability to produce a “sax section” is testament to Popkin’s mastery of his instrument. Deploying the upper, middle and lower registers of the tenor to emphasize rhythm, bass lines and the different melodic phrases as they swap and change with the music is never allowed to stand still and kept in a constant state of flux.
The other aspect that Popkin brings to the music is his own innate musicality. If as a musician he is indelibly linked to his association with Lennie Tristano, Popkin is also very much his own man. His dedication and passion to remain true to his shared musical beliefs with Tristano may have cast Popkin in the shadows somewhat, but he is a truly creative force whose music encompasses the whole history of jazz and beyond.
His grasp of early jazz and its validity and importance in today’s music is heard in the marvelous ‘Victory Jam’ and ‘Louis Blues’, while ‘Lenny’s Boogie’ provides a firm foundation thematically and rhythmically for some inspired soloing.
‘All In’ is just that, busy, detailed and with multiple complex lines that weave an elaborate tapestry it can take a while to pick out all the musical threads. To the contrary ‘Quartet’ appears to utilize just four voices, while ‘Celeste’ focusses on the lower tones of the tenor for effect.
Popkin is at pains to ensure that the improvisations are not buried in a myriad of sound, and this beauty of dynamics and timbre is captured in the delicate sound of ‘Oracle’, while ‘Free Bop’ is not the frenetic blow out that could be implied by the title, but a subtle and well thought out improvisation that appears to be freeing bop from its own harmonic prison.
In recent years Lenny Popkin has been heard in a trio setting with his wife, Carol Tristano on drums alongside a number of different bass players. An easier listen these recordings maybe, but Sax Section occupies a unique place in Popkins’s discography and ultimately is a rewarding experience.
