Larry Koonse Quartet - New Jazz Standards Vol. 4 (2019)

Its not a stretch to see how a great improviser can also be a great composer. After all an improviser is using the same compositional elements as a composer in real time. What is amazing in terms of Carl Saunders’ compositional world is that there is such a huge range of musical offerings. There is the lyrical “A Ballad for Now”, the dark and surreal (“Dark Blanket”), the humorous (“Baby Blues”), the nod to Jobim and Bill Evans (“A Poor Man’s Mr. Evans”), the traditional song with twists (“DoBeDoBeDo”), and the harmonically sophisticated (“Another Side of Her”). Each a beautifully crafted gem.

To help Koonse to fully realize these lyrical yet tricky puzzles created by Saunders, he immediately contacted his dear friend Josh Nelson. Josh is a musician that is always thinking orchestrationally and is more than willing to not use all ten fingers when the moment calls for it. Great listener, supportive accompanist, brilliant harmonic mind …… They got together in one long session and thought of ways to bring out the character of each piece within the limits of a guitar/piano based quartet w/ life-long friends Tom Warrington and Joe La Barbera. Both consummate musicians who Koonse has a long track record with and always play from the perspective of “what does this musical moment need now” as opposed to “look at me now”.