By Ed Enright | Published September 2026
It’s the way George Garzone and his all-star quintet play that makes this studio recording feel so much like a live blow. It’s the soul-stirring conviction heard in their approach to the three originals on this eight-song, straightahead jazz program that makes them sound as warm and familiar as old standards. And it’s the exploratory manner in which the Boston-tough tenor saxophonist and his co-conspirators — trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts — reinvent the program’s four standards and one contrafact that makes them so worth listening to again. Recorded in a single day, Themes For Good Friends is a showcase for Garzone’s enduring voice after more than 50 years in the music, as he continues to play with the same sophistication and curiosity that has defined him all along. It’s also a celebration of musical relationships forged over a lifetime. Each musician is a bandleader and improviser in their own right, and together they create a unified ensemble built on decades of friendship and collaboration. The repertoire reflects the breadth of their shared musical vision. Opening the album is John Coltrane’s “Theme For Ernie” performed as a lyrical duet between Garzone and Perdomo. Archie Shepp’s “U-Jaama” follows, with Watts anchoring the full ensemble before launching into a commanding solo and Debriano providing a rhythmic foundation that allows the music to swing effortlessly. “It Will Happen To You,” built upon the harmonic framework of Jimmy Van Heusen’s “It Could Happen To You,” demonstrates Garzone’s wit as an arranger, as the piece transforms familiar material into a joyful modern swing vehicle; Brecker delivers a trumpet performance filled with warmth and invention, while Perdomo contributes an exuberant piano solo before the track concludes with a spirited exchange between Debriano and Watts. Debriano’s composition “Ripty-Boom” provides one of the album’s most expansive performances, with every member stretching freely. Garzone’s “To Michael Brecker” finds him joining the late saxophonist’s trumpet-playing brother in a single melodic statement that becomes a moving tribute to one of jazz’s most beloved voices. Garzone and Watts’ duo deconstruction of “Giant Steps,” an adventure in improvisation and harmonic exploration that reveals the familiar Coltrane melody only in its closing moments, is one of the bolder statements in this delectable program of hard-swinging hard-bop and heart-wrenching balladry.
