REVIEW BY RICHARD MAYER

Every Spring, Harvard University issues from its ivy covered halls another crop of the "brightest and the best." They go forth to make their mark in the world, these future scientists, doctors, diplomats, tenor sax players. That’s right, tenor sax players. First it was Don Braden, who held the first saxophone chair in the Harvard Jazz Band, then of course Joshua Redman, who sat in that same charmed chair, and now comes Anton Schwartz. The 30 year old Schwartz actually came through the Harvard band between Braden and Redman, and like his esteemed fellow alumni, had no intention of being a full time professional musician, that is until the music called. "When Music Calls," the self-produced debut by Mr. Schwartz is the answer to that call. To his credit Anton Schwartz has followed his heart, and taken what is not by any means the easy road. He has his work cut out for him, not only as a developing player, but as an entrepreneur as well. On both counts he seems to be rising to the task. He is doing the required footwork, playing gigs, lots of gigs, most of them around the San Francisco Bay area where he resides, and steadily widening his circle. A handful of New York dates are in the cards for 1999 including the high profile BlueNote. On the business end of things, without a record deal, the aspiring young player must work his career as a cottage industry, which is what he's done, and with encouraging results. Promoting his music at www.antonjazz.com, and other Internet vendors, as well as having the disc available in selected stores around the country, he is making a dent.

Musically, Anton Schwartz' sound has been likened to that of Dexter Gordon, and also to Warne Marsh, who he cites as a mentor. I hear a shade of Stanley Turrentine at times, and also some of Joshua Redman, (the musical version of a Harvard accent, perhaps?) The opening tune on the disc, Too Much Pepper, is in fact a bluesy, much syncopated vehicle such as Redman would write, and it is here where that tone is most evident. Schwartz thinks of himself as a laid-back kind of a player, but he sheds that image on Tidepool, a hip modal thing in six that gets a shot in the arm from the Afro-Cuban bateria of Jason Lewis and Josh Jones. Rabbit Days, another of several thoughtful originals, hops along breezily in three, with room for solos by Nagel and Shifflett. Denouement is a light Latin piece, which, unfortunately, the engineer fades around the time that Schwartz is just beginning to blow (ironic, since denouement is French for final outcome.) Balancing out this nicely paced package of originals are a ballad and a couple of straight-ahead cookers. The non-originals are a re-worked funky version of Rodgers and Hart's Where or When, and a re-designed and re-named version of Sonny Rollins' Doxy. "When Music Calls" is a more than credible first effort for Mr. Schwartz and his bandmates. It's obvious that he is has the right combination of talent and ambition, and it's likely we will be hearing more from him as he works his way across the country.