Review of CD - Square Peg Round Hole - by Paul MacArthur for Downbeat Magazine

When Woody Witt heard his 5-year-old daughter, Caroline, tinkering on the piano one afternoon, he asked her to repeat her six-note improvisation. When she played it again, Witt jumped over to the piano and developed the melody into the song "Taking Her Sweet Time," which appears on his recent release, Square Peg, Round Hold (Apria). Though he's no Leopold Mozart parading his child around to local royalty, the 36-year-old tenor saxophonist has found something of a muse in his youngest daughter.

"I've got about seven tunes that I've written with her," Witt said, "Another tune on the album, 'Child-like,' it sounds like a nursery rhyme the way it starts."

While a pre-teen may be inspiring some of his melodies, no one is accusing Witt of being simple. A professor of music at Houston Community College, he's also an affiliate artist in jazz at the University of Houston and the artistic director of the area's premiere jazz listening room, Cezanne. His doctoral disseration, "Sonny Stitt: His Life and Music," was published in 2000, and he's put together a yet to be published book of Stitt transcriptions.

Outside of the academy, Witt is a first-call musician known for his sophistication and intensity. "He's synthesized a lot of different influences," trumpeter Randy Brecker said. "He has a big sound that's typical of the style of Texas tenors, sonically, but he's a modern player."

Brecker appears on Square Peg, Round Hole, Witt's second album and his first to get picked up by a label. The release also features pianist David Kikoski, Bassist Johannes Weidenmueller and drummer Ari Hoenig, Witt's old University of Noth Texas friend. Hoenig convinced Witt to record the album in New York and get some higher profile players for the project.

Recorded in just five hours, from a compositional standpoint, Square Peg's most apparent influence is Kenny Wheeler, whose work Witt has been studying. "His writing just sounds open to me," he said. "His melodies have interesting intervallic shapes, wide skips and are romantic in the European classical tradition."

James Willliams was another muse. The pianist had agreed to be part of the project, but died before the recording session. Upon hearing of Williams' death, Witt penned "Much More To Say" that evening.

"I felt compelled to sit at the piano and it just flowed out in 15 minutes," Witt said. The ballad owes a debt to the 1960s Blue Note tradition, and is a compelling moment on the album.

"I love playing ballads," Witt said. "Most musicians say that's the hardest thing to do. I feel more comfortable on ballads. There's more space between the beats. It allows me the opportunity to focus on each note."