Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers

An energetic, exuberant player, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims is perhaps best known for his membership in the famous "four brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's late-forties Herd, and for his longstanding small-group collaborations with fellow tenorman Al Cohn. Yet neither of those pigeonholes do his abilities justice: Sims was a remarkably complete musician, comfortable playing everything from hard bop to swing to Dixieland. And though most clearly drawing his musical delineation from Lester Young, Sims was also capable of a raw, free-swinging style that hinted at the influence of the Texas tenor school and such boppers as Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray. His dynamism is evident on Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers: the 10-song compilation, recorded in 1975, uses such jazz improvisation stalwarts as "The Man I Love," "I Got Rhythm," "Summertime," and "Embraceable You" to showcase his absolute command of the modern jazz vocabulary. If the record label, Norman Granz's Pablo, was overly reliant on a core group of technically breathtaking but somewhat predictable players, the presence of label stars pianist Oscar Peterson and guitarist Joe Pass as sidemen here proved a blessing. --Fred Goodman