Camille Thurman
Origins
Hot Tone Music ***1/2
With a collection of 13 tracks featuring mainly her own compositions, the standard ‘Please Be Kind’ Thurman convincingly sings, and Fats Waller’s ‘Jitterbug Waltz’, the saxophonist, flautist, and vocalist is joined by Enoch Smith Jr and Luis Perdomo who share piano duties, bassist Corcoran Holt known for his work recently with Kenny Garrett, and alternating on drums Beautiful Dreamers’ Rudy Royston and Shirazette Tinnin who debuts as a leader next month with Humility: Purity of My Soul. Brandee Younger with a cameo on harp on Thurman’s swinger ‘The Dreamweaverer’ completes the line-up. Recorded in 2011 and early-2013 Origins begins at quite a clip on ‘Forward Motion’, the 27-year-old Thurman locating her sound solidly in the Sonny Rollins domain leaving a big hole for Royston to practically jump-start the tune after an opening foray. Thurman, a former student of geology, was influenced in her teens by listening to a Dexter Gordon record and you can hear a little bit of the Sophisticated Giant in the New York-based player’s sound digging deep as it were but not that much, and she certainly has a laidback style and plenty of poise. Playing a Selmer Mark VI, a make of instrument more or less synonymous with the classic sound of jazz saxophone between 1954 and 1974, completes the vintage effect. Thurman’s soprano feature on the intro to ‘Indigo Moments’ before the switch to bossa nova has great tone and there are plenty of pleasurable moments on Origins (not so sure about the less than essential scat feature on ‘Anna’s Joy’), with ‘Kindred Minds’ in particular displaying some great personality in the tenor soloing, and ‘Pursuit with a Purpose’ this very mature album’s easy stand-out.
Released on 4 February (US release date)