Alone by Wayne Escoffery
96kHz - 48-bit HD Audio with digital booklet including original photography by Kasia Idzkowska and liner notes by Shaun Brady.
Saxophonist WAYNE ESCOFFERY reflects on love, loss, and solitude on his stunning new album, the atmospheric and haunting, ALONE, featuring a remarkable all-star quartet with GERALD CLAYTON, RON CARTER, and CARL ALLEN.
***
In the summer of 2023, saxophonist and composer Wayne Escoffery found himself alone in a way that he’d never quite experienced before. He was away from home, on sabbatical in Europe with a month to himself between tours. A long-term relationship had just ended, and he was confronted with the loss of friendships that he’d once valued. Worst of all, he’d suffered a broken finger that left him unable to play the saxophone for the first time since he’d picked up the horn in high school.
“Normally, my coping mechanism would be the saxophone,” Escoffery laments. “But even that wasn't available to me for about nine weeks, so I just had to be alone in my thoughts.”
He made good use of this alone time, conceptualizing the music that makes up his striking and singular new album, ALONE. What emerged from that solitude was an extended mood piece, an album unique in Escoffery’s typically wide-ranging catalogue for its sustained atmosphere of stark melancholy and searching introspection. The music is breathtakingly interpreted by an all-star quartet featuring iconic bassist Ron Carter, drummer Carl Allen, and pianist Gerald Clayton.
The music Escoffery compiled for Alone – a carefully selected blend of original compositions and familiar standards – vividly captures the profound richness and variety of emotion that loneliness can evoke. Although it was conceived during isolation, heartbreak, regret, and reflection, the experience of the album is far richer even than that. In the end, “I was forced to reflect on life and what was most important to me,” Escoffery concludes. “The concept of this album grew out of that reflection.”
Tracklist
| 1. | Moments with You | 6:31 |
| 2. | Alone | 8:07 |
| 3. | Rapture | 6:44 |
| 4. | The Ice Queen | 8:16 |
| 5. | The Shadow of Your Smile | 6:24 |
| 6. | Blues for D.P. | 6:09 |
| 7. | Stella by Starlight | 9:04 |
| 8. | Since I Fell for You | 5:07 |
Credits
Recorded on April 23, 2024, at Sear Sound Studio C, New York City
Produced by Paul Stache & Damon Smith
Recording by Chris Allen
Recording Assisted by Maximilian Troppe
Mixing by Chris Allen & Paul Stache
Mastering by Chris Allen
Photography by Kasia Idzkowska
Liner Notes by Shaun Brady
Gerald Clayton appears courtesy of Blue Note Records
Wayne Escoffery is a D’Addario Woodwinds Artist
and endorses AMT Microphones
Executive Producers: Paul Stache & Molly Johnson
License
All rights reserved.
Saxophonist Wayne Escoffery is one of the vital rising stars in jazz. “His sound is arguably a contemporary mix of Coltrane, Shorter and Henderson influences, but is already personal,” according to JazzWise. Escoffery is both a longtime member of the Tom Harrell Quintet and the Mingus Dynasty and Big Band, as well as a valuable side artist for Ron Carter, Eddie Henderson, Steve Davis, and others.