Jason Seizer - Serenity

Cool, hardbop, the Latin-spiced tonal language of someone like Stan Getz: on his latest production Serenity, Jason Seizer moves with tremendous ease between the greatly varied styles of Fifties and Sixties jazz. However, the Munich tenor saxophonist succeeds at the same time - and this is the enormous appeal of Serenity - in transporting his very own, unmistakable musical idiom into each song.

The result: despite the distinct reminiscences, Serenity sounds wonderfully modern and refreshingly up-to-date. The classic quartet setting with guitar certainly plays a large role in this. It not only opens the harmonically fascinating "free" spaces and tonal colors, but also leaves Seizer and his guitarist Peter Bernstein all the conceivable space for inspired improvisation and intensely tight musical dialogues. The experienced listener won't be surprised to hear that this album was recorded after a two-week live tour.