Themes for Good Friends by George Garzone — Out Now

Themes for Good Friends, the new album by Boston tenor saxophonist George Garzone, is out now on JOJO RECORDS.

Eight tracks recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, with a band of titans: Randy Brecker on trumpet, Luis Perdomo on piano, Santi Debriano on double bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums. Garzone has spent fifty years teaching at Berklee, shaping players from Joshua Redman and Mark Turner to Melissa Aldana and Donny McCaslin. He has recorded only a dozen albums as a leader. This one was worth the wait.

Debriano and Garzone met as students in Boston around 1970 and have played together ever since; it was through Debriano that Simon Belelty, JOJO RECORDS’ founder, brought this quintet together. The program runs from hard bop to ballads: Debriano’s “Ripty Boom,” Archie Shepp’s “U-Jaama,” Perdomo’s “Just Ring the Bell,” and two Garzone originals, “To Michael Brecker” and “The Mingus That I Knew,” each carrying a story of its own.

Two duos stand out. On “Theme for Ernie,” Fred Lacey’s ballad, Garzone plays with Perdomo alone, in the warm, unhurried spirit of his lifelong hero Stan Getz. On “Giant Steps,” he and Watts take Coltrane apart until the melody surfaces in the final bars.

DownBeat named it an Editors’ Pick, with a four-star review.

“A good teacher is a teacher who can teach you to teach yourself.” George Garzone

Artwork by Anna Yatskevich. Liner notes by T.J. English.

🎧 Stream: https://fanlink.tv/GeorgeGarzone
🛒 Order: https://www.amazon.fr/Themes-Friends-Digipack-George-Garzone/dp/B0HBYYLYR1
💿 Bandcamp: https://jojorecords.bandcamp.com/album/themes-for-good-friends