Evolve

After four soulful urban jazz workouts, Jackiem Joyner’s aptly named fifth album, Church Boy, celebrated his inspiration from gospel music. Now with Evolve, he shifts again: the saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist’s sixth is the first where he wrote, arranged, and produced things himself. This isn’t to say he didn’t have an assortment of players stopping by. Most notably, pianist Keiko Matsui has a nice back and forth with Joyner on “Europa” that reveals an easy conversational chemistry. Saxophonist Gerald Albright comes in for the funky “Big Step,” where the two go toe to toe (or sax to sax). Elsewhere, the opening track, “Generation Next,” kicks things off on the good foot with a big beat and insistent groove, as well as a memorable melodic hook from Joyner’s alto sax. The biggest surprise here comes in the shape of “Born to Fly,” which has a nice crunchy guitar from Kayta Matsuno in counterpoint and arrangement while maintaining its R&B underpinnings. It's certainly a promising creative next step from this still young and rising saxophonist.