Keith Oxman

Denver-based tenor saxophonist Keith Oxman has recorded four previous CDs for Tom Burns's plucky, perennially underfunded Capri label, based in Bailey. But Brain Storm, Oxman's first release in three years, signals perhaps the biggest leap forward for a player, composer and teacher (he directs East High School's student big band) who's toured with the likes of Buddy Rich and Art Blakey and represents the best of Denver jazzdom. Suggestions of Coltrane and Joe Henderson remain in his style -- why not?! -- but the six vivid Oxman originals and six standards on this impeccably recorded CD speak of a musician who's in full command of his own voice. Witness Oxman's inventive "Brother William," on which the saxophonist gets down with some uptempo minor blues, or "Justin's Arrival," his playful reinvention of "I Got Rhythm." Oxman's soulmates, Denver jazz-club fixtures all, are exemplary -- burly Ken Walker on bass, the tasteful drummer Todd Reid and the solid, well-traveled pianist Chip Stevens.