After having avoided
standards
during his first few recordings, tenor saxophonist
Gary Thomas
surprised his followers with
While the Gate Is Open
, which contains such
jazz
themes as
"Star Eyes,"
"The Song Is You,"
"On the Trail,"
and
"Epistrophy."
With assistance on some selections by guitarist
Kevin Eubanks
, keyboardist
Renee Rosnes
,
Dave Holland
or
Anthony Cox
on bass, and drummer
Dennis Chambers
Thomas
gives the eight tunes fresh treatments and as usual avoids all cliches (and the logic of
bop
) in his explorative improvisations. ~ Scott Yanow