Dune     
Denys Baptiste (ts), Andrew McCormack (p), Gary Crosby (b) and  Rod Youngs (d). Rec. 2010


Although he never really went away, Denys Baptiste is back again with his first album since Let Freedom Ring released seven years ago. Less ambitious than his suite that combined gospel, blues, contemporary jazz and Afro-Caribbean music with poetry excerpts, here Baptiste concentrates on refining his approach to the quartet through a series of compositions that tackle identity through attempting to explore the essence of the inner man.

The pieces are linked by their relationship to aspects of his persona, thus ‘The Long Night’, the album’s most dramatic and forceful piece, explores slavery; ‘Dance of Makritari’ – a musical descendent of ‘St. Thomas’ – reflects Baptiste’s recent discovery that his great-grandmother was a member of the Makritari tribe; while ‘Special Times’ is a dedication to his family (his wife and two children) which for the last few years have been his priority at the expense of his career in jazz. It is a robust and absorbing statement from one of the UK’s finest young saxophonists, the track ‘Shorter by Miles’ showing he is back for business and in fine form.

Stuart Nicholson