Jerry Bergonzi - Dog Star (2017)

Jerry Bergonzi has been making records for decades yet lately, he seems to be finding an even fresher way forward with a set like this that can grab us right from the very first note, and having us get excited all over again about his music! Bergonzi's tenor sound is tremendous – that raw tone that's been building up right from the start but maybe the strongest element here is the group, which seems to have this soaring vision that's even more than the sum of its parts driven on by this excellent presence on bass from Johnny Aman, whose dark notes really color the music, and open up the moodiest side of Bergonzi's music alongside the excellent Carl Winther on piano, who wrote songs on the record alongside Jerry plus Phil Grenadier on trumpet, and Anders Mogensen on drums. The trumpet/tenor pairing, quite familiar in jazz, somehow manages to find all these new places throughout bursting out beautifully on titles that include "Pleiades", "Dog Star", "Darkness", "Live Stream", "Vertigo", and "Repor-Pa-Int". © 1996-2017, Dusty Groove, Inc.

Personnel: Jerry Bergonzi, tenor saxophone; Phil Grenadier, trumpet; Carl Winther, piano; Johnny Åman, bass; Anders Mogensen, drums