Tomás Ramírez

Tres (INIO Music)

In a most subtle way, Tomás Ramírez creates a tribute to his own lengthy career on Tres. If the album itself wasn’t an impressive whole, final track “Rosa le da Lucha al Diablo” (loosely “Rosa’s Fight With the Devil”) could well serve as a one-tune overview of the Texan tenor saxophonist’s lengthy career as the Jazzmanian Devil. Tres traces Ramírez’ estimable jazz chops with all the flavor of his Corpus Christi roots (“Amigo Land,” “Prima,” “Fidencia”), plus the funk that garnered his first notices in the Seventies (“Sitting with the King,” “La Nalgona”), and his own freewheeling style (“Confrontal Obtusion,” “On the Boulevard,” “Oh, Would I?”). The Hammond-driven “My Town” and Allman Brothers bassist Oteil Burbridge add bluesy, Southwestern accents. A tip of the fedora to the Beatles on “In My Life” proves the only cover on the disc. Next time your car’s pointed south on Interstate 35 or any direction, pop in Tres and let its Texan warmth be your compass.

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This article appears in September 28 • 2012.

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