Elias Haslanger

Live at the Gallery (Cherrywood)

Tenor great Elias Haslanger went to the houses of the holy with 2012’s Church on Monday. The Austin-born saxophonist’s sixth LP gilded the post-bop Sixties classicism made legend by Blue Note-ables such as Stanley Turrentine and onetime local Kenny Dorham. Now, a year and a half after the start of his sextet’s free weekly residency at the Continental Club, drops the ripe, low-hanging fruit of that labor. Four separate numbers vying for centerpiece status of Live at the Gallery tell the tale of this masterful capture. Staples of the Church on Monday band’s weekly workout, Herbie Hancock’s funk standard “Watermelon Man,” Horace Silver pledge “A Song for My Father,” and Erroll Garner’s Clint Eastwood stalker “Misty” all orbit the 10-minute mark on their bandleader’s skronk-n-smear, Jake Langley’s cascading, hollow-body tones, and Dr. James Polk’s intergalactic Hammond B-3 organ explorations. Haslanger’s almost four-minute solo opening “Goin’ Down” ascends only.

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This article appears in All Aboard the Soccer Train!.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.