Eric Alexander Review: Tenor Sax at Jazz Showcase

Sometimes small audiences inspire huge performances.

Certainly that was the case Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, where tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander played one of the more striking shows he has given Chicago over the past two decades. As if to thank the surprisingly few souls who attended the first set of a four-night run, the always hard-charging Alexander dialed up the energy even more than usual.

Better still, he broke away from the predictable riffs and occasionally opaquely inexpressive tone that can creep into his playing. This time, Alexander offered one intriguing musical idea after another, all the while paying particular attention to the character and nuance of his sound.

It has been a long time—if ever—since this listener heard Alexander unfurl a ballad as poetically as he did "My Foolish Heart." The luxuriance of Alexander's low-register timbre and the long-lined lyricism of his phrases hinted at a new musical maturity.