Satanic

Personnel: Ernie Krivda (tenor saxophone).Satanic is a title everybody who knows the religiously devout Ernie Krivda found confusing, even if the music is not. It's a reference to the fire-and-brimstone stance of the leader as opposed to any devil-driven, Antichrist verses being expounded upon. The tenor saxophonist departed from his native Cleveland for a West Coast stint with Quincy Jones, then headed to N.Y.C. to record this, his first album as a leader, with a group of metropolitan contemporaries like percussionist Ray Mantilla, drummer Bob Moses, pianist Gil Goldstein, and electric bass guitarist Jeff Berlin. The music is thoroughly modern, spikes on many staccato wavelengths over brazen dynamics, and displays Krivda's raw edge on tenor sax that is only the beginning of the style he would hone and identify as an original sound. There are two truly outstanding tracks on this album -- "Three Legged Dance" and "The Song of the Moor." The former is an insanely vibrant composition in 1