Artist The Hanah Jon Taylor Artet

Sax and flute player Hanah Jon Taylor lives in Madison but doesn't play local shows too often, insisting that venues and crowds here too often treat music as secondary to drinking. Whether you agree or not, The Hanah Jon Taylor Artet's improvisations journey within and outside jazz in a way that simply doesn't compute as background music. On Taylor's new HyrPlasis, his alto and soprano sax keep spontaneity in touch with an exuberant sense of melody. Taylor pans across the patient, broad grooves of "Luna Mia" and alternates sweetness with squeaked-out abrasion against Kirk Brown's piano on "HyrPlasis." Taylor seems to have the most fun, though, with an unruly flute lead on the Latin-influenced stutter of "Songo Red."  

Updated 02/02/2010