recommendations: September 2006 Archives

Diana Krall, From This Moment On (Verve). The pianist and vocalist returns to the mainstream with fine playing and singing on ten standards from the great American songbook and one by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Spare arrangements by Krall on four quartet tracks and John Clayton on seven with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra are effective settings for her dusky voice. Highlights: Gershwin's "I Was Doing All Right" and Berlin's "Isn't This a Lovely Day," the latter with short, story-tellling solos by alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton and trumpeter Terrell Stafford. Krall's piano solos throughout are eloquent and to the point, her singing warm and attuned to a selection of great songs.

Charlie Barnet, Town Hall Concert (HEP). As the swing era wound down, Barnet was one of the leaders hoping to keep big bands alive by pleasing the dancers while accomodating bebop developments. He had the right combination of elements; his adaptation of Elllingtonia, a smattering of bop-oriented young musicians, great arrangements by Andy Gibson, Neal Hefti and Billy May and--far from least--his own gutsy saxophone solos and charisma. The December, 1947, Town Hall concert is one of his enduring monuments. The trumpet work of 27-year-old Clark Terry--now thrilling, now endearing--is fresh fifty-nine years later.

The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, In Progress (Pony Boy). Seattle seems to be breeding big bands. Cutler's is one of the best of the current crop. There's not a household name among the twenty-three musicians who appear in this stimulating collection of twelve originals and John Coltrane's "Dear Lord," but who cares? Execution and solos are first rate (watch out for tenor saxophonist Richard Cole). Cutler and Daniel Barry write beautifully.

Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing). This is the story of the club that became headquarters for music that blew a fresh wind through jazz in the 1950s when Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne and Bob Cooper were among the new stars of West Coast Jazz. Much of the story is told through recollections of veterans of the era, including Shank, Bill Holman, Stan Levey and Howard Rumsey. Rumsey was the bassist who partnered with a recovering gambler to make the Lighthouse an institution in Hermosa Beach. The California town was embarassed by the club until its leaders realized that they had a treasure in their midst. The DVD is a documentary laced with music.

Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics). One of the Nobel prize winner's most clumsily written novels, it nonetheless carries a timeless warning about how a leader able to manipulate the citizenry could quickly erode democracy's fragile stability. The totalitarian takeover that Lewis created as fiction in 1935 is a graphic echo of Patrick Henry's (or Wendell Phillips's) reminder about the price of liberty being eternal vigilance.