On 2020's
While Looking Up, saxophonist
Jimmy Greene offers more of his deeply spiritual and joyful post-bop jazz. The album arrives after
Greene's two previous releases, 2014's
Beautiful Life and 2017's
Flowers: Beautiful Life, Vol. 2, both of which found him working through his grief over the death of his six-year-old daughter in the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. While often emotionally heavy to listen to, those albums found
Greene tapping into a deep well of love for his daughter and transforming his sadness into hope for the future. It's that transformative sense of hope that he brings to
While Looking Up. Intended as a musical antidote to the social and political divisiveness of the years leading up to and following the 2016 U.S. presidential election,
While Looking Up is a buoyant album, with moments of soft-spoken strength, measured defiance, and an underlying feeling of gratitude. The album also finds
Greene looking even further back in time to his 2009 breakthrough
Mission Statement; an album that found him coming into his own as both a bandleader and improvisor. Joining him here are several musicians who played on that album, including guitarist
Lage Lund, bassist
Reuben Rogers, and vibraphonist
Stefon Harris. Also joining him here are longtime associates in drummer
Kendrick Scott and pianist
Aaron Goldberg. Together, they play with an empathy and intuitive flow that close friends often have. There's a vibrant, rhythmic quality to many of these tracks, like the opening rendition of
Cole Porter's "So in Love" with its minor-key flamenco groove.
Greene also often sets up his songs with inventive intros, like having
Lund play a one-note cadence against
Rogers' chorded basslines for the frenetic "Always There." Similarly,
Scott and
Rogers kick off "Overreaction'' with a propulsive, swinging pattern before
Greene,
Lund, and
Goldberg overlay an angular melody. There are also quieter, if no less rhythmically interesting moments, including the languid "Steadfast," with its delicate counterpoint between
Goldberg and
Greene. "April 4th" is yet another moment of quiet reserve as
Greene overlays a gorgeously harmonized flute, sax, and clarinet melody in loving tribute to his daughter. There's also an inspired, slow-burn ballad reworking of
Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), and a soulful take on the
Billie Holiday-associated standard "Good Morning Heartache" that evokes the yearning, burnished styles of
Dexter Gordon and
Ben Webster. In keeping with the adage that you need to look backwards to move forwards,
While Looking Up is the sound of
Greene bringing all of his creative and personal experiences to bear in fresh and uplifting ways. ~ Matt Collar
