The Phil Woods Quintet

Having played with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Steely Dan, alto saxophonist Phil Woods possesses wide-ranging talent. But aside from a brief flirtation with fusion and the more avant-garde elements of jazz in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Woods has dedicated his career — and his unmistakable sound — to the spirit of hard bop. Predating the early efforts of now not-so-young lions such as Wynton Marsalis, the Phil Woods Quintet found itself burdened with the unenviable duty of preserving traditional jazz sounds that had become all but ignored by 1973. Now allowed the luxury of celebrating the style rather than having to keep it alive, Woods shines even brighter as one of the genre’s revered elder statesmen.