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Don Aliquo: Growth

By Jack Bowers
March 11, 2023
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On Growth, his eighth album as a leader, it is said that Nashville-based saxophonist

Don Aliquo

saxophone, soprano

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Aliquo "pushes past his established comfort zone and into more precarious and challenging improvisational territory." While that may well be true, another truism is that the harmonic vocabulary of contemporary jazz has remained essentially unchanged for more than eight decades, and Aliquo does nothing to alter the blueprint. He simply approaches improvisation in his own way while embracing time-honored parameters.

In other words, this isn't "free" jazz unfastened from conventional melody, harmony or rhythm—and that, in one listener's opinion, is a good thing, as it means that Aliquo's quartets are exemplifying modern jazz to the best of their ability and should be appraised on that basis. The word "quartets" is used because there are two, on four numbers each, the first with trumpeter

Rod McGaha

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Rod McGaha on the front line, the second with guitarist

Steve Kovalcheck

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Steve Kovalcheck sitting in.

It should be noted from the outset that Aliquo is a capable soloist on tenor sax (most numbers) or bass clarinet ("For the Vulnerable") whose special qualities lie not so much in anomalous detours as in his ability to decipher every theme and wrest the most intensity from it. The fact that he wrote and arranged all of them is no doubt useful in that respect. McGaha and Kovalcheck are efficient but no more than that, while the rhythm sections (bassists

Jonathan Wires

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Jonathan Wires or

Jacob Jezioro

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Jacob Jezioro, drummers

Marcus Finnie

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Marcus Finnie or

Danny Gottlieb

drums
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Danny Gottlieb) enact their supporting roles without fuss or bother (Wires and Finnie solo admirably on "Lower Broadway Rundown," Jezioro on "Naked Statues," he and Gottlieb on "Blues for Buffy and Doug").

The music traces the same pattern, serving for the most part as a sturdy launching pad for the various soloists while leaving little or no after-effects. Those whose appetites clamor for daring enterprises that lean toward modernism without eschewing tradition may find that Growth embodies precisely the proper ingredients to appease their hunger.

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Track Listing

Salt and Light; Woman Clothed in the Sun, Lower Broadway Rundown, Growth, Pedal Taverns, For the Vulnerable, Naked Statues, Blues for Duffy and Doug

Personnel

Don Aliquo

saxophone, soprano

Rod McGaha

trumpet

Jonathan Wires

bass, acoustic

Marcus Finnie

drums

Steve Kovalcheck

guitar

Jacob Jezioro

bass, acoustic

Danny Gottlieb

drums

Album information

Title: Growth | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Ear Up Records

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Don Aliquo Concerts

Nov 7 Fri

Don Aliquo/shawn Purcell Quartet Featuring Darden Purcell

Rudy's Jazz Room
Nashville, TN

Nov 8 Sat

Don Aliquo/shawn Purcell Quartet Featuring Darden Purcell

Rudy's Jazz Room
Nashville, TN

Jan 16 Fri

Shawn Purcell Group

Con Alma
Pittsburgh, PA

Jan 17 Sat

Shawn Purcell Group

BLU Jazz+
Akron, OH

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