Hard bop from NYC saxophonist Asaf Yuria, recorded at Van Gelder Studio with George Cables, Billy Hart and Omer Avital.

New York tenor saxophonist Asaf Yuria has never been interested in making the same record twice. Five years ago he released the acclaimed Exorcisms on Jojo Records, a program of original compositions cut with a sextet of New York players. In Light of a New Moon takes an entirely different path: a quartet of masters, a repertoire built around interpretations, and a return to the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs. Joining Yuria are pianist George Cables and drummer Billy Hart, both former teachers of his and both especially inspired here, alongside bassist Omer Avital. Trumpeter Joe Magnarelli appears as a special guest on two tracks. What has not changed is Yuria's love of hard bop, the music that took bebop's improvisational foundations and gave them a looser, harder swinging shape, drawing on blues, rhythm & blues and gospel. It is the language of Horace Silver, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and Clifford Brown, and of the tenor players who shaped Yuria's own sound: Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Hank Mobley, Harold Land. John Hicks wrote 'After the Morning' in 1979 for solo piano; Yuria, who has played it since his earliest days, arranges it for quartet at a medium tempo that lets its haunting melody breathe. Hank Mobley's 'Hipsippy Blues,' written in 1959 for Blakey's Jazz Messengers, is taken in quintet with Magnarelli. 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams,' the 1940 Jimmy Van Heusen standard, becomes an uncommonly sensual ballad. Two Cables compositions get fresh readings: 'Circle,' reimagined as a bright, sun drenched bossa, and 'EVC,' a piece Yuria discovered twenty years ago when Cables was his teacher. His sole original, 'Praise of Shadows,' is an explosive quintet feature. The album closes with Dizzy Gillespie's 'Con Alma' in an intimate saxophone and piano duo.

Track Listing

• After The Morning
• Hipsippy Blues
• Polka Dots and Moonbeams
• Circle
• Praise of Shadows
• EVC
• Con Alma

Additional Details

Label: JOJO RECORDS

Genre: Jazz

Language: English

Run Time: 40:53 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 11/06/26

UPC: 3341342170479