Deep in the Soil

The craft is tight, the feeling is refreshing, the sound is quick and precise, and the gestalt brings the individual voices of the musicians into group form. - Robin James, All About Jazz. With an all-star, monumentally swinging band in tow, saxophonist Jordan VanHemert returns to his roots on "Deep in the Soil," setting aside his usual tenor saxophone for the alto, and revisiting the sounds and life-force of Charlie Parker, whose music first shaped his playing. With his partners on the front-line - trumpeter Terell Stafford and trombonist/co-producer Michael Dease - and the fleet rhythm section of Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker and Lewis Nash, VanHemert explodes with a set of modern jazz originals, composed by himself, Dease, Stafford, Jimmy Heath and Sharel Cassity, along with an effervescent arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Superwoman." "Creative, grounded, and strikingly passionate." - Jazz Sensibilities