Oleo - Stephen Riley

Recorded in February 2018 and released on SteepleChase Records in August 2019, Oleo is a pianoless quartet session led by tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley with trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Adam Nussbaum. The format draws on the tradition of Sonny Rollins' pianoless groups with Don Cherry from the early 1960s, placing the two horns in open dialogue without a chordal instrument filling the harmony. Riley had explored this approach on his 2017 album Hold 'em Joe, and Oleo continues in that vein. The nine-track program is built almost entirely from the jazz canon — Rollins' "Oleo" and "Doxy," Charlie Parker's "Ornithology," Gigi Gryce's "Minority," Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and several others — with the horns stating themes in tandem before opening up for extended improvisation. Anderson and Nussbaum, both experienced studio and touring musicians, provide a rhythmic foundation flexible enough to support the harmonic freedom the pianoless format demands. The closing track, "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," stretches past eleven minutes. At sixty-six minutes, the album offers an unhurried look at a working band navigating familiar material with attentiveness and interplay.