Dreamsville

David Halliday - Tenor Saxophone Julian Waterfall Pollack - Piano Christopher Tordini - Bass Steve Lyman - Drums Reviewing David Halliday's performance on guitarist Corey Christiansen's soul jazz album Roll With It, Billy Kerr writes in Saxophone Journal, Halliday's playing matches the music perfectly, but make no mistake, he is no ordinary R&B player. His saxophone playing and his music are at the highest levels, great dark, fat sound, wonderful time and feel, as well as a clean, fast technique. Judging from this recording, I'm sure he could play any kind of music. And, indeed, versatility is one of Halliday's many musical strengths. The big Texas tenor R&B sound that Kerr praises also served the saxophonist well during his years on the road with blues diva E.C. Scott, gigs with the Temptations and the Four Tops, as a member of the New Orleans funk band Galactic, and on his forthcoming funk album with the Big Easy's premiere drummer Stanton Moore (also featuring Christiansen and San Francisco organist Will Blades, to be released this summer). But the variety of his musical accomplishments doesn't stop there. He's also been active as producer, composer, and professor, having produced Rotating Superstructure's alternative rock album Bouncy Castle and his erstwhile pupil Chase Baird's straight-ahead jazz album Crosscurrent (3 stars in Downbeat). His compositions, meanwhile, have frequently been heard on CBS, HBO, ESPN and NFL Network, and on other TV networks around the world; and his academic endeavors include directing big bands at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Westminster College, where he also teaches jazz history. Earlier this month he appeared as a featured soloist with the Utah Symphony, performing John Williams's knuckle-busting virtuoso piece for alto saxophone Joy Ride, from the score of the film Catch Me If You Can. But Halliday's deepest roots are in modern jazz, having heard his father's vinyl records of many of the tradition's greats from the time he was in his mother's womb, and as a grade-schooler having accompanied his father to San Francisco jazz clubs like Keystone Korner and the Great American Music Hall, where he listened to live performances by such jazz legends as Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Sarah Vaughan, Zoot Sims, Tito Puente, Red Norvo, Tal Farlow, Betty Carter, Tete Montoliu, Billy Higgins, Phil Woods, Elvin Jones, Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Paquito D'Rivera, Dave McKenna, Oscar Peterson, and the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin Big Band. Having begun playing alto sax in grade school, by the time he was in junior high, young David had sufficiently impressed two San Francisco musicians (pianist Melanie Jones and bassist Bill Langlois) that they recommended he study with Joe Henderson, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in the history of jazz, and they took it upon themselves to ask Joe if he'd take David on as a student. Joe responded that he'd decide after hearing a tape of the youngster's playing. David responded with a recording of Jeep's Blues, doing his best Johnny Hodges imitation. After hearing the tape, Joe called David's dad and told him he heard some talent there that he'd like to help develop. When the elder Halliday asked how much the lessons would cost, Joe answered forty dollars for an hour of instruction. When David's dad expressed surprise at how little the instruction would cost, Joe replied, Well, I think of it as planting trees. And so, for the next two years, David studied music with Joe Henderson. Music is a more apt term than saxophone for what the youngster learned from Joe during those years. The lessons included no sheet music and Joe never once pulled out his own horn; and although he occasionally offered pointers on technique, he spent almost all their time together simply playing melodic lines on the piano, which David would repeat back on his alto (to Joe's piano accompaniment) until David had them note-for-note. As soon as he'd mastered a line, Joe would move on to another. Joe required David to tape all these lessons so that he'd have somet