Joe Alexander - Blue Jubilee (2012)

Being virtually unknown is no reliable indication of a jazz musicians quality; the music has more than its share of highly competent musicians whose careers were passed in almost total obscurity. A case in point is Joe Alexander, a hard-driving young tenor from Birmingham, Alabama, who made his leader debut on this, his only album.

Sharing the front line with him was the almost equally unsung Joe Hunt, the trumpet and flugelhorn player of the accomplished Ray Charles band. Obscure though the hornmen were, they were good enough to call on a rhythm section of high profile players in pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Albert Heath. With such support, and with Timmons sharing solo honors, Alexander and Hunt establish their credentials as brisk, long-limbed swingers on Browns Town, Weird Beard (both arranged by Hunt), Terris Blues, and Tom McIntoshs earthy Blue Jubilee. Alexander in particular digs much emotion out of a ballad treatment of the standard Ill Close My Eyes, proving that good jazz is where you find it.