Alexa Tarantino
Alto Sax Solo on
Ceora

About

Alexa Tarantino takes two choruses of alto saxophone on Lee Morgan's "Ceora," a bossa nova at approximately 131 BPM on this Live From Emmet's Place session. The 32-bar AA' form in A-flat provides a lyrical framework for improvisation, and Tarantino's playing captures the composition's graceful character while adding her own harmonic and rhythmic ideas. As the first of three soloists, her two-chorus statement establishes the performance's relaxed yet musically engaged atmosphere, the bossa nova feel offering a change of pace from the session's swing-based numbers. Her lines move through Morgan's elegant changes with the fluency of a player deeply versed in the hard-bop repertoire.

Alexa Tarantino was 28 to 29 years old at the time.