Dusted Features Magazine
Best 10 of 2007

The Smalls label is still low on radar of most jazz listeners, this despite several euphonic coups, chief among them the stewardship of deceased bebop doyen Frank Hewitt’s recorded legacy. Producer Luke Kaven isn’t shy about expounding on unsung talent and in addition to sheparding new releases by the likes of erudite saxophonists Ned Goold and Chris Byars he also pressed his promoter’s acumen in the service of one Zaid Nasser. Nasser’s back-story, full of colorful character details like a glass eye and several years spent as an expatriate in Armenia, is the usual one of a great talent gone largely ignored. He’s since departed these shores again, this time for Dubai, and while there’s no telling when he’ll return, at least he left behind a debut album, one prophetically titled Escape From New York.

-- Derek Taylor