CiTR

Tenor saxophonist Roland Alexander gets the Jazz Feature spotlight tonight. as our month of obscure records continues. This time most of the artists here including Mr. Alexander are undeservedly obscure. Roland worked and recorded with several leaders including trumpeter Howard McGhee, drummer Charlie Persip and His Jazz Statesmen , Max Roach, Sun Ra, and Abdullah Ibrahim among others but made only two albums under his own name and this is his first. It's called "Pleasure Bent" and also contains four fine Alexander originals. Roland picked the great Detroit based trumpeter Marcus Belgrave as his front line partner. Belgrave rarely went to New York as he had a great career teaching and playing in Detroit. Pianist Ronnie Mathews and bassist Gene tTaylor are acually better known than the leader and they work well on this date. Drummer Clarence "Scoby" Stroman was everybody's favorite in New York and was an always available sub for some drummers who were late for gigs or were no-shows but Scoby rarely got any record dates which was unfortunate but we get to hear him drive the band here with swing and taste, "Pleasure Bent" was one of the rarer items in the Prestige/New Jazz catalogue and was sought after as a "collector's item" by record buffs. Obscure or not...this is one fine recording session thanks to Roland Alexander and company.