Benny Reid, 29, is an saxophonist, composer, teacher, and recording artist who studied at Indiana University and now resides in New York. (Find him on Twitter, All About Jazz, Myspace, or Youtube).

He recently released his second album, Escaping Shadows, on the Concord Jazz label.

It features Benny Reid (alto saxophone & keyboards), Richard Padron (acoustic and electric guitars), Pablo Vergara (piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards), Daniel Loomis (bass and electric bass), Kenny Grohowski (drums), Jeff Taylor (vocals), and Ryan Fitch (percussion).

For a sample of the music on the CD, check out the video below (or on Youtube).

One of Benny Reid’s main influences is Pat Metheny, and many of his compositions have parallels in some of Pat Metheny’s earlier works. The title track, Escaping Shadows, reminds me of Metheny’s Minuano Six Eight.

I’m a big fan of Pat Metheny so Benny Reid’s compositions immediately appealed to me. His work is similar in style and interpretation to Bob Curnow’s (who did a recording of Metheny’s earlier works in a big band style). Benny Reid’s arrangements make use of the smaller ensemble well and move between a contemporary, abstract style and an almost smooth-jazz sound for some of the melody lines and musical effects.

I especially enjoy Kenny Grohowski’s sensitive, nuanced, and very active drumming (which tends on the busy side but is very musical).

Benny Reid has a great sound on the alto sax – a very clear, expressive and pure tone. He avoids repeating the often quoted licks of bebop and instead forges his own way, with easily recalled and infectious melodies that seem almost derivative in their simplicity, but taken in the context of the band and compositions are obviously original.

Escaping Shadows is available as a Mp3 download or a physical disk from Concord Music Group.

Last summer I attended the Victoria Conservatory’s jazz workshop and one of the highlights was taking some classes with New York jazz pianist Misha Piatigorsky. One of the exercises of the composition class involved making up some chords to a melody, and can you believe it, the song from that exercise is still stuck in my head (or at least it decided to pop into my musical consciousness again tonight).

So here is what I remember, and I’ll call the tune “Misha’s Song”. I made a little recording and you can listen to it by clicking below. Comments are always appreciated!!

> Misha’s Song MP3 (playing time 2:35) – Composition and solo piano by Geoff Peters.

For those computer music buffs out there, a midi transcription of my performance is available by clicking here.

I have just witnessed one of the most spectacular live performances I have ever seen, of improvised music.

The band was the New York trombonist Steve Swell’s group, with Hamid Drake on drums, Jemeel Moondoc on alto saxophone, and William Parker on bass. They gave a stunning performance at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, after having been on the road together for about 3.5 weeks.

I have never seen anyone play so intensely on the trombone, as Steve Swell did tonight. He played lines that any sax player would envy, and his whole body shook with incredible energy as he moved the trombone effortlessly through space like it were a toy. Steve Swell is a powerful man, physically as well, so he has mastered and tamed his instrument like not many can. As well as playing highly in an”avant-garde” style, he also showed off his beautiful tone and melodic sense in a middle number, which left me sitting and thinking that I could listen to this music forever.

One who nearly stole the show was Hamid Drake on drums. I can’t even begin to describe what he was doing on those drums, but his playing showed a technique so deep, with such command of every possible sound that can be made with a drum kit, and such speed, energy, force and precision that drove the band into reaching new heights what seemed like every few seconds. I thought Lewis Nash was my favorite drummer before today, and while I still highly regard Nash, I must say that my mind has been forever changed! Drake rules!

The likes of the great Jemeel Moondoc on alto saxophone is not seen very often on the Vancouver jazz scene, and what creativity and talent he showed through his instrument! CJBS likened his approach to “the looseness of bar room blues with post-Ornette multi-key vigor”, but what I thought was the most impressive was how he easily exchanged musical ideas with the other players, especially Swell and Drake.

I think it is the hallmark of a good improvised performance when you can tell that the players are truly listening to each other and are subtly complimenting, supporting, and bouncing ideas between themselves. It makes listening more rewarding when you suddenly realize that “hey, the drummer just echoed that sax lick”, or “that sax player just carried on the phrase the trombonist started”. That happened for me a lot tonight, so I was very impressed.

And not to be outdone was William Parker on bass. CJBS calls him “one of the most inventive bassist/leaders since Charles Mingus”, and I can easily see why. On each of his many bass solos, he did something totally new, such as closing off the strings near the top of the neck and playing the strings near the tuning pegs (that created a very cool high-harmonic effect which he punctuated with the occasional deep tone). His sound was immaculate… so resonant and full, but yet with a sense of time and place that glued together the whole ensemble.

You might notice that it’s very late at night as I am writing, and I don’t usually write such long articles, but it’s only because I was just so excited from this concert that I had to share it with you. Definitely check out these guys’ recordings, or try and see them live if it is at all possible.