Eyes Full

Zoh Amba has spent her short career playing saxophone like a woman trying to burn a hole through the ceiling, and this set finally lets that fire share the room with tenderness instead of eclipsing it.

"Emahoy" tips its hat to the Ethiopian nun-pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, and you can hear why: Amba trades some of her Aylerian shriek for melody that walks slowly and refuses to hurry, hymn-shaped and unashamed of prettiness. The title track still opens the throttle, tone splintering at the top of the horn where most players would back off, but the domestic-sounding titles — "Weed Eating," "Odd Jobs," "PG Tips" — signal a musician grounding her ecstasy in ordinary Tennessee life rather than pure abstraction. That grounding is the growth here; the wildness was never in doubt. What she proves on "Eyes Full" is that she can whisper and still hold the whole room.