Bennie Wallace emerged at the end of the 1970s, a tenor saxophonist who was influenced by both the mainstream post-bop jazz of the 1960s and the avant -garde that emerged in the middle of that decade and grew in influence throughout the '70s.

This is what James Eason, writing in Music Hound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide wrote about Wallace in the late '90s:

"Imagine Eric Dolphy and Sonny rollins (c.1964) 'walking the bar' in some old honky-tonk, playing Thelonious Monk tunes, and you'd have some idea of what Bennie Wallace sounds like. His honking, heavily arpeggiated style can sometimes sugges the saxophone's circus roots, but he provides enough humor, emotion, and intensity to remain a safe distance from the abyss."

Who better than Wallace to pay tribute to Coleman Hawkins, one of jazz music's most influential tenor players ever, a player who respected and embodied the romantic tone and melodic interpretation of the instrument in his own era, yet who was fascinated by the possibilities of increased harmonic interpretation of familiar melodies and who, far from dismissing early bop developments as did many of his contemporaries, instead championed the younger players and continued to learn from them? Wallace's latest disc, Disorder at the Border: The Music of Coleman Hawkins is a fantastic tribute to the tenor legend, because it gets both aspects of Coleman's music right, and the performances are great.

Wallace fronts a nine-man band, which forms a kind of mini-big band. There is a near full sax section with Wallace on tenor, two altos (Jesse Davis and Brad Leali) and a baritone (Adam Schroeder). Terell Stafford and Ray Anderson are the lone trumpet and trombone, respectively. Rounding out the band are Donal Vega on piano, Danton Boller on bass, and Alvin Queen on drums.

The band tackles a repertoire tha includes a couple of Hawkins compositions, some all-out blowing sessions, a Latinesque number, and two standards--Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Body and Soul," the number most associated with Hawkins. The performances are tight, with lots of solo space for Wallace, naturally. His playing here is vital and energetic, with good use of his arpeggiated style to increase the harmonic variety of the compositions, while at other times the harmonic edge comes from the voicings of arranger Anthony Wilson. Stafford and Anderson play some nice solos, as does Vega.

Recorded live at Berlin JazzFest, Disorder at the Border is a really fine jazz album that is just what it says--nothing more, and certainly nothing less than the implications of its title and creator would suggest.