**1/2 Donald Harrison

FREE TO BE

(Impulse!)

Alto-saxophonist Donald Harrison is a fluid, resourceful, sometimes adventurous player, in thrall to Coltrane and joined here by a pianist (Andrew Adair) who's steeped in McCoy Tyner. So there's no escaping the sense of familiarity, especially on the reharmonized "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise." On the plus side, "Blue Rose" is a pleasant tune in the vein of Trane's "Giant Steps," and Harrison, to his credit, also draws on Eric Dolphy, Sonny Criss, and Jackie McLean.

Over the last couple of albums, Harrison has been emphasizing funk and his New Orleans roots. He makes the Meters' "Cissy Strut" into an exciting modal swinger and digs in with an imaginative, pensive solo. The soul bass line and percussion of "Mr. Cool Breeze" establish an attractive groove right off, and Harrison sails over it superbly. "Nouveau Swing (Reprise)," a sung paean to jazz, shows how embarrassing jazz musicians can be when they try to go pop. The bit when Donald tells us to "check the blue notes connected to the new notes" might have been more effective if Free To Be gave us a stronger sense that Harrison is really after something "new."

-- Chris Fujiwara

(The Donald Harrison Quartet plays Scullers this coming Wednesday and Thursday, April 7 and 8. Call 562-4111.)