The Hal Russell Story

Hal Russell died just weeks after recording The Hal Russell Story, and what a swan song it is. Telling his life in an 18-part suite, he throws one bon mot after another onto our mental grills. Primarily on tenor and soprano saxophones, he also plays a slew of percussion and, like his NRG Ensemble bandmates, switches hats at the drop of one as the mood demands. He makes hard-hitting jazz roll off the tongue like sweet nothings, spanning the gamut from incendiary tributes (including a take on Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”) to introspective asides, but always with a vaudevillian flair.