New Wilson, Coleman, Sims and Byard CDs

We continue our doomed effort to catch up with even a small percentage of the CDs washing over the market in a volume that makes the Missoula floods seem puny.

Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts, Scenic Route (Palmetto). Despite, or because of, the side trips, the peripatetic drummer and his quartet cover a lot of territory...and time. The title tune might be a John Kirby or Raymond Scott transcription from 1939, "25 Years of Rootabagas" a gospel hymn and "Feel The Sway" a stop at a 1970s ashram. Along the way, there are memorials to Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Albert Ayler and John Lennon, pieces by Pat Metheny and Bobby Hutcherson, and a gorgeous version of "Tenderly" featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford. Pianist Gary Versace doubles on organ and accordian, bassist Dennis Irwin on clarinet. This is music that pulls off the neat trick of being both adventurous and accessible.

Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar). This is the Coleman CD I missed when it came out in 2006, the one that made most of the best-of lists at year's end. On alto saxophone, the 75-year-old iconoclast is as endearing as ever with his sweet tone, exclamatory cries and bluesy asides. In "Turnaround," one of his best-known pieces, he achieves the kind of drama he did throughout his 1965 At The Golden Circle albums. In a rare instance of his quoting a standard song, he incorporates a phrase from "If I Loved You," a nice touch. The other members of his quartet are his son Denardo on drums, and two bassists, one who plucks, one who bows. That instrumentation results in sonic mush at times, but it doesn't take the edge off Coleman's charming work on alto. His trumpet and violin playing are better than they used to be.

Zoot Sims, Zoot Suite (High Note). There was a time when I sat around hoping that sooner or later the postman would bring the next new Zoot Sims album. Sims has been gone since 1985, so that hope evaporated long ago but, mirabile dictu (that's Latin for "boy, am I surprised"), there is a new Zoot Sims album. Not a reissue. New. Never before released. Even better, it has one of Zoot's, and my, favorite rhythm sections; pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist George Mraz and drummer Mousey Alexander. The only information High Note discloses about the time and place is that the live date was "from a Caribbean appearance in 1973." Zoot plays brilliantly on tenor and soprano saxophones. Indeed, all hands are in top form in a selection of tunes nearly half of which are by Duke Ellington. Two by Fats Waller include "Jitterbug Waltz," fast and irresistible. Rowles and Mraz outdo themselves in solo on "Honeysuckle Rose." The entire CD is a romp. The only problem is that the recording is, as they say in Brazil, desafinado. The humid Carribean air attacking the piano or the tape recorder may have been to blame. Tunes intended to be in the key of F, for instance, end up somewhere between F-sharp and G-flat. But the playing is so exhilirating that the listener willling to mentally adjust for the ill-tempered clavier will be lavishly rewarded.

Jaki Byard, Sunshine Of My Soul (High Note). Not to be confused with the 1967 Byard trio CD of the same name, this is a previously unissued 1978 solo piano peformance from San Francisco's Keystone Korner. One of the great jazz pianists of the second half of the twentieth century, Byard was an eclectic, a master of many styles melded into profound personal expression, a wry humorist of the keyboard. He displays astonishing range here, from rock-solid stride to whimsical takes on free jazz. He pours passion into a medley of Charles Mingus tunes, makes of "Spinning Wheel" a kaleidoscope, and imparts so many moods to an eight-and-a-half-minute "Besame Mucho" that the piece becomes a suite. The album includes six of Byard's intriguing compositions. Like the Sims CD, this comes as a welcome surprise. Who knew that we might be treated to a new Jaki Byard discovery. If you don't laugh at least once during "European Episodes," seek help.