2010 July 01

Recent Listening: Geri Allen

July 1, 2010 by Doug Ramsey

Geri Allen & Timeline, Live (Motéma). Allen's considerable strengths are on display in the pianist's recording with her trio and a percussive guest. She integrates dancer Maurice Chestnut's steely tapping with the time-keeping and soloing of her gifted young sidemen, drummer Kassa Overall and bassist Kenny Davis. Chestnut expands on the tradition established by Savion Glover and—long before—dancers like Baby Laurence who accommodated themselves to bebop. The crowds at the Oberlin … [Read more...]

Lionel Ferbos At 99

July 1, 2010 by Doug Ramsey

The man who may well be the world's oldest performing jazz musician is approaching his 99th birthday. Befitting a man nearly the age of the music itself, he's from New Orleans. Lionel Ferbos was born July 17, 1911. He played trumpet in the 1920s with bands led by Walter "Fats" Pichon and Sidney Desvigne and in the 1930s with Harold Dejan and the quintessential New Orleans alto saxophonist Captain John Handy. In demand for his reading ability and lead playing, Ferbos is the trumpeter in the New … [Read more...]

Mark Mohr on Surviving In The Book Business: An Authors Fair
Just read your post "Surviving in the Book Business: An Authors Fair" with great interest. Books and independent bookstores are near and dear to...
Posted Mar 07, 2014
Ted O'Reilly on The Bill Holman Film
I'm in! with my paltry retiree's donation, but hope it helps such a good project towards completion.
Posted Mar 07, 2014
Ted O'Reilly on Just Because: Jan Allan
That's very nice -- Allen is a good player, and the Visby Band is pretty good. I'll catch hell for this, but neither the soloist nor...
Posted Mar 07, 2014
Ron Thorne on Jack Berry RIP
Sorry for your loss, Doug. I didn't know Jack, but I knew of his wonderful work and his special connection with a mutual friend ......
Posted Mar 06, 2014
Doug Ramsey on Correspondence: More About Crocojazz
John Norris was the founder of Coda, the Canadian jazz magazine, and co-founder of Sackville Recordings. He died in 2010
Posted Mar 05, 2014

CD: Bob Dorough

Bob Dorough, Eulalia (Merry Lane Records)

In addition to endearing vocal performances of several of his best songs, Dorough gives listeners what may come as a surprise to many; his ingenuity as an arranger. The deceptive simplicity of “Eulalia,” the album’s sole instrumental, is one of several instances of his melody lines and the tang of his voicings giving energy and richness to a mid-sized ensemble. Dorough plays piano. Other soloists include alto saxophonist Phil Woods, bassist Steve Gilmore and Dorough’s daughter Aralee, a symphony flutist. Woods is on fire in Dorough’s gospel anthem “A Few Days of Glory” and in the classic “I’ve Got Just About Everything.” When Dorough recorded Eulalia, he was 88. His musicianship and wit were ageless.

CD: Rudy Royston

Rudy Royston, 303 (Greenleaf Music)

In his debut as a leader the young drummer from Denver (area code 303) fronts a septet of his generation’s more adventurous players. The eclecticism of the music encompasses Radiohead’s “High and Dry,” the Mozart motet “Ave Verum Corpus,” a drum feature inspired by Elvin Jones, and homage to Denver trumpeter Ron Miles. Even in “Bownze,” the Jones tribute, Royston refrains from drum exhibitionism. Throughout, he melds his work with the septet, which includes two bassists—Yasushi Nakamura and Mimi Jones, the ingenious saxophonist Jon Irabagon, Australian trumpeter Nadja Noordhuis, pianist Sam Harris and guitarist Nir Felder. Royston’s impressive compositions and arrangements provide ensemble unity.

CD: Alan Broadbent

Alan Broadbent, Heart to Heart (Chilly Bin)

Broadbent’s first solo piano album, recorded in 1991, was a highlight of Concord’s Maybeck series. He has continued to perform with a trio and with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, but to many he is known primarily as the arranger-conductor for Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Michael Feinstein and Paul McCartney. Producer George Fendel thought it was time for Broadbent to again record alone on a superb piano before an appreciative audience, so he presented him in the solo series at Portland’s Classic Piano store. From Haden’s “Hello My Lovely” to a blazing conclusion with “Cherokee,” Broadbent reminds us of his formidable command of the instrument, his harmonic chops and the joy he takes and gives in making music.

CD: Frank Wess

Frank Wess, Magic 201 (IPO)

The final track of the great tenor saxophonist and flutist’s final album is a lovely performance of Sammy Cahn’s 1937 standard “If it’s the Last Thing I Do,” giving the CD added poignancy. Wess died in October, 2013, after decades as one of the most respected members of the jazz generation that came to prominence after World War Two. No tempo in the album is above a medium walk, but you don’t go to Frank Wess expecting speed. You expect profundity, and that’s what you get here. As in Magic 101, his colleagues are pianist Kenny Barron, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Winard Harper. Wess’s “Embraceable You” duet with Barron is perfection.

Book: Derrick Bang

Derrick Bang, Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (McFarland)

Bang’s 2012 book is less a full-fledged biography than a comprehensive survey of Guaraldi’s career loaded with anecdotes. The pianist was a committed jazz artist who became famous through indelible identification with a major phenomenon of popular culture. Millions know him through his music for the Peanuts television specials. Yet, dedication to his work as an improvising musician lasted until the end of his life in 1976. Bang traces Guaraldi’s progress from early sideman work with Conte Candoli and Cal Tjader through his hit, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” to the success of the Charlie Brown soundtracks. Extensive quotes from colleagues help capture the personality that allowed Guaraldi to be simultaneously endearing and uncompromising.

CD: Jeremy Steig, Featuring Denny Zeitlin

Jeremy Steig, Flute Fever (International Phonograph)

The Rifftides campaign for a reissue of the 1963 debut recording of flutist Jeremy Steig and pianist Denny Zeitlin got underway with this observation in a 2005 post:

On Sonny Rollins’s “Oleo,” each of them solos with ferocious thrust, chutzpah, swing and—one of the most challenging accomplishments in jazz—a feeling of delirious freedom within the discipline of a harmonic structure.

Fifty years after it appeared, Flute Fever remains one of the finest albums of the second half of the twentieth century, regardless of genre. At last, it is a CD, but Columbia ceded the honor to someone else. Kudos to Jonathan Horwich and International Phonograph. The reproduction of sound, packaging and artwork is flawless. This is a basic repertoire item.

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