Mike Allen Quartet

Love One Another Almus Jazz/Warner Music Canada ALM14062 Release date: November, 2005 Mike Allen - tenor sax Bruno Hubert - piano Sean Cronin - bass Julian MacDonough - drums Her Ascendancy The Power Of Observation Luna Crescente In A World Of Their Own The Best For Me Same Old Feeling Something For Tony Love One Another Recorded July 25-27, 2005 at Birch Theatre, Capilano College, North Vancouver, BC. Recorded by Brad Turner. Mixed by Chris Gestrin. Mastered by Suite Sound Labs Winner of the 2003 Western Canadian Music Awards "Jazz Album Of The Year", tenor saxophonist Mike Allen has embraced the jazz tradition to create his own singular sound. As a leader for over a decade on a handful of critically acclaimed CDs, Allen has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in jazz. The Globe and Mail calls Allen "one of a half dozen interesting Canadians to watch." His recently released seventh CD as a leader, Love One Another (Almus Jazz), proves Allen is even better than that. Recorded by Brad Turner at North Vancouver's Birch Theatre in three days at the end of July 2005, mixed by Chris Gestrin, and mastered by Jamie Sitar, Mike Allen's beautiful production is as strong as his band's playing. Throughout the recording's eight tracks, the rhythm section's propulsive blowing provides supple support for Allen's soulful abstractions. This is a beautiful quartet of masterful musicians cooking on all cylinders on a set of eight well-crafted originals. Allen has absorbed the post-bop advancements of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. After studying with Joe Henderson in San Francisco, Allen has mastered his teacher's synthesis of the two tenor sax titans and carved out his own distinctive sound and vision. Lester Young and Ben Webster's big, rich tenor sounds haunt many of Allen's solos. The bark and controlled wildness that Coleman Hawkins added to the jazz idiom are here too. Love One Another teems with ancient echoes blown through the instrument's majestic history. More significantly, Allen's tenor sax sings a breathtakingly singular and original song. With Love One Another, Mike Allen has produced music of uncommon beauty and power. The stately title track sounds like an instant classic, and it caps a series of exciting performances of in-the-moment improvisational magic. It's the essence of jazz. It's great! - Joseph Blake, Victoria Times Colonist Audio samples and information at: http://www3.telus.net/public/mike1223/albums.shtml