| For the better part of four decades, Carl Wolfe has been entertaining audiences throughout the United States with his saxophone playing. He has shared the stage with the likes of Doc Severinsen, Bob Hope and Ray Charles. In 1997, he produced the highly successful CD 'Music Aboard The Titanic' in conjunction with the Titanic exhibition. He is co-founder and co-director of the Memphis Jazz Orchestra and in 1996 assembled the cream of Memphis' jazz session players to record his long-coming debut release 'Reed Between The Lines.' Born in Philadelphia, Carl Began his music education at the age of eight and was a saxophonist and conductor in the U.S. Navy band for twenty years. His ten song CD consists of freshly original, contemporary jazz. Its combination of beautifully melodic composition and equally powerful performance sets it apart from other titles in its category. Carl draws from the full scale of human experience and sets it to music. "March of the Pentarian Triclops" stems from a bizarre childhood nightmare, while "The Southern Side Of Rose" is Carl's ode to the female form.
The title track, like others on the CD (March of the Pentarian Cyclops, Dream Garden, Memphis Bound, Six on Six, That's the Ticket), spotlight not only Wolfe's mastery of the saxophone, but the fine support of his sidemen-J. T. Page, Tony Thomas, Tim Goodwin, Don Patterson, Joey Moore and John Warren. All those compositions, by Wolfe, are as uplifting and memorable as anything by Spyro Gyra, The Manhattan Transfer, The Big Bop Nouveau Band or Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack. The work, Talkin' Stuff, is a cleaned-up and polite version of another phrase that many a musician has encountered. It, too, is an upbeat piece that passes solos from player to player. From the opening bars of Southern Side of Rose, the listener is put in the mood of the stereotypical South with its smoke-filled clubs where musicians play more for love than money. But it is with Yesterday I Loved and Ice Dancer that the songs are pared to the guts and bones, devoid of heavy accompaniment, revealing the strength of the compositions. Like Eric Carmen's "All By Myself," Janis Ian's "Jesse" or Elton John's "Come Down in Time" they are truly moving, heartfelt songs.
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