30/03/2007 Alan Brownlee - Manchester Evening News

HERE'S an album to demolish the distinction between 'local' players and `world-class' players. As an example of elaborate arrangements, tuneful melodies and big band dynamics, Sax Of Gold bears comparison with anything being produced by the more vaunted Stateside jazz fraternity - although Yellowjackets' Bob Mintzer is honoured guest on two tracks.

As befits the classically-trained Scott, the music is mostly lyrical, and the arrangements are models of clarity: the massed saxes (nine of them!) provide open-textured soundscapes and weaving lines that dovetail with beautiful elasticity.

What raises Sax of Gold above the competition, however, is Scott's gift for melody, as the songful Lord Stackhouse and Whisper Goodbye demonstrate.