Alone (Vinyle LP) / Wayne Escoffery

Description

Moments with You - Alone - Rapture - The Ice Queen - The Shadow of Your Smile - Blues for D.P. - Stella by Starlight - Since I Fell for You Saxophonist and composer Wayne Escoffery reflects on love, loss, and loneliness on his stunning new album, Alone, an atmospheric and haunting mood piece featuring a remarkable all-star quartet comprised of pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Carl Allen. In the summer of 2023, saxophonist and composer Wayne Escoffery found himself alone in a way he hadn’t been before. He was far from home, on sabbatical in Europe, with a month to himself between touring gigs. A long-term relationship had just ended, and he was grappling with the loss of friendships he had once cherished. To make matters worse, he’d broken his finger and couldn’t play the saxophone for the first time since he learned to play in high school. “Normally my coping mechanism would be the saxophone,” Escoffery laments. “But even that wasn’t available for about nine weeks, so I had to be left alone with my thoughts.” He put this time of solitude to good use, conceptualizing the music that makes up his arresting and singular new album. From that solitude came a lengthy mood piece, a unique work in Escoffery’s extensive catalog for its sustained atmosphere of melancholy and introspection. Alone was conceived during a time of isolation, heartbreak, regret, and reflection, but the album’s experience is much richer than that. Ultimately, “I was forced to reflect on life and what was most important to me,” Escoffery concludes. “The concept for this album came from that reflection.”