CD: Carl Saunders/Bill Holman

Carl Saunders, The Lost Bill Holman Charts (MAMA). Holman wrote these jewels of chamber music in the early 1980s, but the commissioner put them in a closet for more than twenty years. When they came to the attention of virtuoso trumpeter Saunders, he assembled a septet to record them. And what a septet: tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb, trombonist Andy Martin, baritone saxophonist Bob Efford, pianist Christian Jacob, bassist Kevin Axt and drummer Santo Savino, with Sam Most as a guest soloist on flute and baritone. Holman wrote brilliantly for medium-sized bands for a Kenton Presents project in 1954, for Jimmy Rowles' Weather In A Jazz Vane in 1958 and for Zoot Sims' Hawthorne Nights in 1976. Since then, most of his work has been for large aggregations. These newfound charts fill the gap--and then some.