Byproduct

BYP Records

Rating: ***

The Doxas brothers, tenor saxophonist Chet and drummer Jim, have been turning heads in Montreal with their confidence, skill and youthful energy. Allied in Byproduct with bassist Zack Lober, who exhibits the same qualities, they introduce themselves to the rest of the world very impressively on this debut CD.

The three musicians keep things fairly simple, in a sing-song sort of way, allowing only Chet Doxas's occasional venture into electronica to draw them away from the unadorned saxophone-trio sound that dates back through recent Joe Lovano to classic Sonny Rollins. If the worried bowed-bass solo and slippery rhythm loop that preface Track 1, Lober's Nature Seen, promise something more urgently up-to-date than the rest of the CD delivers, have patience: These are early days in what are surely interesting careers in the making.

By MARK MILLER
Thursday, March 13, 2003 - Page R4