Alexa Tarantino, The Roar and the Whisper Review

The Roar and the Whisper: Alexa Tarantino’s exploration of Contrast and Cohesion

By Nolan DeBuke

Alexa Tarantino has long been admired as a saxophonist, flutist, composer, teacher, and mentor. With her fifth studio album, The Roar and the Whisper, released on Blue Engine Records, she offers a compelling example of how concept, composition, and performance can be artistically rich and pedagogically instructive.

The title of the album is drawn from a personal encounter with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, where Tarantino was inspired to explore the contrast of projection and intimacy. Tarantino’s band is Steven Feifke on piano, Philip Norris on bass, and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums. This ensemble proves to be one of balance, groove, tone color, and conversation-focused.

“Inside Looking Out” provides an immediate experience in how the ensemble manages rhythmic duality. The tune alternates between straight and swing eighths as the ensemble’s agility in maintaining momentum feels right. Tarantino’s soprano solo is an expression of her melodic playfulness as she stretches against the groove without losing it. Norris’ bass playing is an ideal example of harmonic clarity and rhythmic propulsion.

“The Roar and the Whisper” demonstrates how the ensemble uses the extended form to articulate a building color and melodic conversation. Tarantino’s glissandi, falls, and subtle bends provide vocabulary beyond her bebop-influenced lines. Tarantino shows how timbre can be as expressive as pitch. Feifke’s melodic solo is supported by Whitfield Jr.’s nuanced textures, reinforced by Morri’s harmonic shaping.

“This Is for Albert,” Wayne Shorter’s tribute to Bud Powell, becomes a performance where the ensemble converses in post-bop tradition. The quartet keeps the harmonic framework in focus as Tarantino and Feifke perform solos with contemporary rhythmic phrasing and intervallic shapes that reflect post-1960s jazz. This track offers an enjoyable performance in repertoire respect through the lens of today’s performers.

“Portrait of a Shadow” is the ensemble conversing in waltz time, providing an opportunity to hear their phrasing across three. During her solo, Tarantino’s soprano phrases glide elegantly over the barline, culminating in accented rhythmic landing spots to codify the elasticity of the line. “Luminance” shifts the palette as Tarantino picks up the flute; her woodwind doubling expands the group’s expressive options. Her tone is full and warm and always grounded in harmonic precision. The piece’s Latin inflection offers rhythmic variety that shows the ensemble’s clave-derived structures and how they can be adapted in modern jazz contexts.

The flute-voice pairing on Salvant’s “Moon Song” highlights another dimension, with Salvant adding another voice in the conversation. Tarantino’s interaction with Salvant’s vocals is a weaving conversation with interjections and responses that frame the vocalist without distracting from it. “Back in Action” is the ensemble playing a funk-inflected pattern, with Norris and Whitfield Jr.’s groove offering fertile ground for Tarantino and Feifke. The band toggles between rhythmic contrasts. Tarantino’s alto saxophone is a vivid example of how form and groove can coexist dynamically, and how piano, bass, and drums can reframe the solo in a conversation of building phrases.

“Provoking Luck” shows Tarantino at her most hard-bop rooted as her lines are rhythmically phrased in eighths and harmonically focused on approaching chord tones.  Her articulation and breath phrasing also convey a hard-bop and cool jazz influence. The ensemble interaction underscores the importance of active listening in small-group improvisation.

“All Along” brings us into the realm of a jazz ballad with Tarantino’s alto tone maintaining a warmth. Her balance of jazz-blues inflections demonstrates the art of shaping long lines. Strayhorn’s “Tigress” is enriched by Salvant, and Keita Ogawa’s percussion expands the rhythmic field to inspire the ensemble with spontaneous lyricism. Tarantino’s alternation between soprano and flute further adds to the color of the piece.

The Roar and the Whisper is a beautifully performed album of modern ensemble practice. Tarantino demonstrates her command of woodwinds and improvisation, but also how to lead a group that is at once disciplined and exploratory. The album offers rhythmic variety, phrasing across meters, woodwind doubling, and interaction with guest artists. Each performance is a conversation that affirms that technique and emotion, roar and whisper, belong together.