Tenor saxophonist Binker Golding plays beautifully, but that howling blues guitar… no ★★★☆☆

British tenor saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd released an album early this year, the strong Feeding the Machine† He is also active as a solo artist. His second album under his own name, Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy, is musically rooted in the blues. It starts with a solid piece of blues guitar that could have been from Ry Cooder, but the musician on duty is Billy Adamson, who is prominent on this album.

Golding regularly lets him and pianist Sarah Tandy come to the fore, but it is his own lyrical playing that attracts the most attention. Golding’s elongated notes resonate more deeply every record, it seems. His sound becomes fuller and his playing less rushed. Compositionally, however, it is all a bit less compelling. The whining blues guitar soon gets on my nerves and not much else happens musically, except that Golding plays beautifully.