| Jazz |
Celebratink Zoot Sims At 100
Coinciding with what would have been the late tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims’s 100th birthday on October 29, Scott Silbert’s Dream Dancing arrives as both homage and history lesson. It’s the kind of album that bridges eras, steeped in swing tradition yet alive with the immediacy of players who understand that jazz, even in its most classic forms, must breathe in the present.
Silbert, long recognized as one of Washington D.C.’s most accomplished reed players and arrangers, approaches this project less as an exercise in nostalgia than as an act of renewal. He revives and reimagines Sims’s approach on compositions by Cole Porter, himself, and others, but what emerges is not imitation. Instead, Silbert reasserts the enduring vitality of the small jazz ensemble, particularly the quartet, a setting he considers one of the most honest and balanced frameworks the music has ever known.
From the first bars, the sound is strikingly pure. The tenor saxophone, Silbert’s main voice here, is warm, rounded, and unhurried, inviting the listener into melodies that shimmer without excess. “I wanted to honor Zoot’s warmth without copying his phrasing,” Silbert says. “It’s about the spirit more than the style.” The recording itself captures that philosophy beautifully: close-miked yet airy, with just enough room tone to let the listener feel the breath behind each note. You can almost sense the space between the musicians, the quiet communication that defines true small-group jazz.
This is not background music, though it functions gracefully as such. The beauty of Dream Dancing lies in its dual nature: it can fill a room without demanding attention, yet rewards those who lean in to catch the subtle interplay among musicians who clearly trust one another. That equilibrium, between accessibility and depth, is not easily achieved. It’s the mark of an artist who knows that restraint can be its own form of virtuosity.
Silbert’s credentials give context to the poise and authority of the album. A multi-instrumentalist and veteran of the U.S. Navy Commodores Big Band, he joined the ensemble in 1991 as a baritone saxophonist before becoming its chief arranger in 1998, a position he held for fifteen years. His work with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, for which he has composed and arranged more than 200 pieces, further attests to his deep engagement with America’s jazz legacy. Performances at the Detroit-Montreux Jazz Festival, the International Association for Jazz Education Conference, and countless D.C.-area concert halls have made him a familiar presence to audiences who value both tradition and craft.
Yet Dream Dancing reveals a more intimate side of Silbert. Stripped of the grandeur of a big band, he opts for the transparency of a quartet, a format where every nuance counts. There is no place to hide; balance, tone, and dialogue are everything. That he succeeds so convincingly speaks to decades of experience and to a lifelong devotion to the art of ensemble playing.
In the end, Dream Dancing feels like an affectionate conversation across generations, between Silbert and Sims, between the elegance of swing and the clarity of modern jazz. It’s a reminder that history, when treated with care and imagination, can sound as fresh as tomorrow.
In a jazz landscape often chasing innovation, Scott Silbert’s Dream Dancing reminds us that elegance, too, can be revolutionary.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, November 10th 2025
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Musicians:
Scott Silber , tenor & alto saxophone
Amy Shook, bass
Robert Redd, piano
Chuck Redd, drums
Track Listing:
Dream Dancing
Louisiana
It’s That Ole Devil Called Love
Deep in a Dream
You Go To My Head
Blues For Louise
Someday Swweetheart
Low Life
Round My Old Desert Farm
Shadow Waltz
Ballad for Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus Eaters
Wee Dot