When Music Calls

The so-called Young Lion trend in jazz -- young guys choosing hard bop and acoustic post-bop over fusion, crossover and pop-jazz -- gained momentum in the early 1980s but was still alive and well in the late 1990s. One Young Lion who attracted some attention playing the Bay Area jazz scene of the 1990s was Anton Schwartz, who was 30 when he recorded his first album as a leader, When Music Calls, for his own Anton Jazz label. Influenced by Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane, the tenor saxophonist recalls Blue Note's hard bop and post-bop output of the early to mid-1960s on such enjoyable originals as the Brazilian-flavored "Denouement," the relaxed "Poketown" and the haunting ballad "Through the Years." Except for Sonny Rollins' "Doxy" and the standard "Where or When," all of the songs were written by Schwartz himself. Although neither breathtaking nor innovative, this decent and likable CD indicated that Schwartz was someone to keep an eye on. ~ Alex Henderson