Product Description
Jeffrey Benson (tenor saxophone) and Charles Alexander (guitar) have a musical association that goes back more than ten years. Working regularly as a duo on the London scene, they have developed their own musical identity built around the tenor-and-guitar sound. Their first CD 'When Lights Are Low', released in 1996, featured a mix of quartet and duo tracks, but for their new album 'A Handful of Stars' they opted for the quartet format throughout.
The title track, "A Handful of Stars" is a song of outstanding beauty that is seldom recorded. However, its title also indicates the underlying theme of this album, which is that each song contains the word "star". So, alongside the more familiar standards such as "Stars Fell on Alabama", "Stella By Starlight", and "Star Eyes", Benson and Alexander selected songs that are less frequently heard in jazz such as "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Star Trek" . The result is a melodic musical outing, with a mix of ballads and up-tempo tracks and, to coin a phrase, some "old chestnuts in fresh shells".
Personnel:
Jeffrey Benson - (tenor saxophone), Charles Alexander - (guitar), Chris Rodel - (double bass), Matt Home - (drums)