The title track of Rickey Woodard's 1992 live album The Tokyo Express is a blistering blues in F that serves as the record's climactic performance. Woodard tears through nineteen extraordinary choruses of the 12-bar blues form at 246 beats per minute, building one of the most extended and exciting tenor saxophone solos on record. His playing draws on the deep well of the blues tradition, from honking rhythm-and-blues textures to sophisticated bebop chromaticism, each chorus adding another layer to a solo of remarkable sustained invention. Pianist James Williams matches the leader's intensity with eighteen choruses of his own, his hard-bop vocabulary and blues feeling creating a solo of comparable scope and power. Christian McBride's eight-chorus bass solo brings the performance to its conclusion with an improvisation that demonstrates virtuosity and swing in equal measure. The original composition's title pays tribute to the Japanese audience and setting, the high-speed tempo suggesting the velocity of the bullet train. As a closing track, "The Tokyo Express" leaves no doubt about the band's collective power and individual brilliance, capping an album that stands as one of the finest live jazz recordings of the 1990s.
