Now in his forties, Zaid Nasser is the son of Jamil Nasser, bassist on over a dozen albums by Ahmad Jamal in the 1960s and 1970s, but whom you may also know as George Joyner (his birth name), who worked with many of the hard bop giants of the 1950s, including Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lou Donaldson and George Coleman. Choosing the alto saxophone instead of bass was fortunate in that his father's close friends included Donaldson and Coleman. His style is very much hard bop and he's blessed with an excellent technique and good tonal quality. His conception is very free-spirited in its Parker-inspired manner, he loves to play at fast tempos and the material on this CD (his third – he was once with SmallsLive, the club he still works at) is steeped in the bebop tradition. The tunes include some well-worn standards, like ‘Never Let Me Go’ and ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams’, a reworking of ‘Body and Soul’ and Lou Donaldson's variation on ‘What is This Thing Called Love’ (‘Sputnik’) plus an original by trumpeter Louis Smith (‘Vaughn's Bounce’) and Nelson Riddle's theme from the TV show Naked City. The band is his regular working unit in New York. They give this, in many ways, quite remarkable alto player, exactly the kind of support he deserves. Nothing new: but this CD was something of a surprise!