Blueprints

This isn't the first time that Anschell and Jensen have found their way into a recording studio. But it is their initial effort in pre�senting a set of jazz standards. Anschell has been an in-demand Seattle artist for some years now, and I believe that Jensen is still based somewhere in that jazz mecca called Idaho. Bassist Symer, a new name to me, completes the trio. I know that the soprano sax�ophone has become the "darling" of the smooth jazz set, but you needn't worry. There's nothing even close to that on this session. On the contrary, these musicians are engaged in the nearly cosmic act of "reading" each other as they converse musically on eight etched-in-marble standards and one original. The evergreens include "All Blues," "Just Squeeze Me," "How Deep Is The Ocean," "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise," "There Will Never Be Another You," "Blue Monk," "Star Eyes" and "Yardbird Suite." One might assume that Jensen and Anschell have worked together extensive�ly. It can be heard in the passion and precision, the new life, one might say, that they bring to this session. Jensen refers to songs such as this as "our collective tribal language." I couldn't say it any better.