Coming Together

Chris Potter, soprano/alto saxophone
Steve Wilson, soprano/alto saxophone
Terell Stafford, trumpet/flugelhorn
Keith Javors, piano
Delbert Felix, bass
John Davis, drums

24-four-year-old Brendan Romaneck was a saxophonist and composer of enormous promise as he prepared for his debut recording as a leader in the Spring of 2005. Romaneck had already made all the arrangements for the success of “Coming Together,” having booked a studio, prepared the compositions and selected a group of talented players - " trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Keith Javors, bassist Delbert Felix and drummer John Davis -- to help him bring his music to life. Then on April 20, 2005, just two weeks after his 24th birthday and less than two months before the scheduled recording, Brendan Romaneck was taken tragically and suddenly, ending what was already becoming an impressive career as a jazz artist. Romaneck’s parents -- who were the date’s executive producers -- decided to continue the project as a tribute to their son’s music. Javors engaged Chris Potter and Steve Wilson to play the saxophone parts and the resulting music - " full of originality, promise and strength, heralding the coming of an important new composer -- is something that Romaneck, his family and friends can all be proud of.

The original compositions on “Coming Together” are a moving expression of Romaneck’s burgeoning abilities as a composer, while his choice of standards is a sure indication of his grasp of his role in maintaining and advancing the jazz tradition in which he was beginning to take his place. With producer Javors at the piano, Delbert Felix on bass and John Davis behind the drum kit, the music swings with power and originality.

The quartet selections that make up the first half of the date, with Potter on tenor and soprano saxes, reveal a remarkable maturity and a harmonic sensibility that results in a wide ranging expressiveness that belies the youthful years behind the writing. The date’s second half demonstrates Romaneck’s writing for jazz quintet, with trumpeter Terell Stafford and saxophonist Steve Wilson forming the front line that lays down the composer’s wonderfully melodic lines and evocative harmonies with appealing aplomb.

In speaking of the emotion of recording “Coming Together” Stafford says, “This young man had a huge impact; his presence and his musicality really impacted a community and a community of musicians who didn’t even know him.” Bunky Green, who did know him, says of the saxophonist, “He was just starting to bloom … There was a lot of potential there. A lot of potential.” Thanks to the efforts of the family and friends of Brendan Romaneck listeners can at least get a taste on “Coming Together” of what might have been.