Jazz Album of the Day – Motif from the Greg Abate Quartet
A good point guard on the basketball court elevates the players around him and makes them better players. That’s just what jazz saxophonist, flutist, and composer Greg Abate does on his latest release Motif and as a result the album is currently among the most added albums on the JazzWeek Chart and I look forward to tracking its upward movement on the chart, over the coming weeks! It doesn’t hurt though, that the other members of his quartet are, like Greg professors at the Berklee College Music, even so, on the album Greg’s compositions give each member of the quartet room to “do their thing” and boy do they know how to do it!! The first time I listened to the album I thought that the leader of the band could be the piano player Tim Ray, because he stood out so much through the first couple of tracks. But then Greg’s great sounding sax kicked in and a few tracks later his flute appeared and I knew who the leader was!
