The Teodross Avery Quartet - In Other Words (1994)

Teodross Avery, a few days shy of turning 21 at the time of his GRP release, sounds quite mature on his debut as a leader. His tenor tone is attractive, his style is very influenced by Joe Henderson and John Coltrane and he is surprisingly relaxed on the ballads. Avery contributed nine of the 11 selections (all but "What's New" and Wayne Shorter's "Edda"). Three of the songs find trumpeter Roy Hargrove making the group a quintet. The music is very much in the hard bop vein and nothing too innovative or unexpected occurs, but this is an impressive initial effort from Teodross Avery who will hopefully have a long and productive career. -- Scott Yanow