Reviewed by Jeff Cebulski ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Entre Amigos

McGrath/Fujisaki/Lyles/Cortinas

Entre Amigo Records, 2024

By Jeff Cebulski

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Entre Amigos Solidifies These Musicians’ Place in the Chicago Mainstream

After their alluring pop-up concert during the 2023 Chicago Jazz Festival, I thought saxophonist Roy McGrath and his quartet were on the verge of something great. The new album Entre Amigos will certainly add to the luster of his and his mates’ rising status. The pop-up group’s guitar has been replaced by the sparkling pianist Hana Fujisaki while bassist Kitt Lyles and drummer Gustavo Cortinas remain. By the sounds of it, this band has jelled significantly, rendering each tune with evident tightness, highlighting each member’s strengths, a credit to Andy Shoemaker and Rax Trax Recording.

While hints of McGrath, Lyles, and Cortinas’ exotic styles exist, this recording is primarily a post bop affair. The opener “The Almost-Mourning,” McGrath’s lone contribution, rides Lyles’ breezy bass line and saxophonist’s deep, warm old-school tenor while Fujisaki provides a gliding comp and a lyrical solo before McGrath adds his own loquacious statement.

Lyles, one of our rising musicians, contributes three compositions. “So Sad, So Lonesome” is a ballad featuring McGrath’s bluesy refrain over languid, somber support occasionally broken by a Cortinas stick bang. “Monkody” is straight bop, McGrath going all-Dexter, with Fujisaki adding nimble choruses. “Wellspring,” the closer, is introduced by the pianist’s eloquent statement that samples several genres before settling on a slow gospel stride as McGrath quietly inserts a soprano melody that leads to a marvelously pensive Lyles solo.

Fujisaki, like Lyles a graduate of Northwestern, continuously adds a brightness to the proceedings. Her “Matsuri” is, ironically, the sole whole-Latin excursion, though it should be noted that she has played with Chicago Samba. Here and on her ballad “Half Moon,” McGrath switches adroitly to soprano, on which he dances appropriately to the rhythm.

Meanwhile, Cortinas is a stalwart presence, exercising restraint and tasteful adornments throughout. He adds two compositions, perhaps tone poems, of his own. “Windy City” reflects Chicago’s pace shifts, from a urbane, Gershwinesque piano expression to a more frantic period led by McGrath’s frenetic solo. “Borderlands” seems to point south, with a Mexican-type

counterpoint to a dramatic Western bass line. Again, McGrath turns to the soprano that seems to be a positive message above the fray represented by Cortinas’ most expressive drumming.

In the end, Entre Amigos solidifies these Chicago-based musicians as part of the cornerstone of a new generation that defies easy convention while still operating in the mainstream. Following them will not be a waste of time.

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM

McGrath/Fujisaki/Lyles/Cortinas, Entre Amigos. Entre Amigo Records, 2024.

PERSONNEL:

Roy McGrath, tenor and soprano sax

Hana Fujisaki, piano

Kitt Lyles, bass,

Gustavo Cortinas, drum set
from www.chicagojazz.com