recommendations: May 2007 Archives

The Bill Holman Band, Hommage (Jazzed Media). On the verge of his eightieth birthday, Holman retains the energy, wit, freshness and multi-layered conception that have made him a standard-setting arranger for fifty years. "Hommage á Woody," is a three-part suite that captures aspects of Woody Herman and his bands of five decades, with Bob Efford exuberant and touching in his central role on clarinet. Holman also honors Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Tadd Dameron with brilliant variations on their work. As always, Holman's band is loaded with impressive soloists, but there's no doubt that the arranger is the star. The album is dedicated to the memory of Bob Enevoldsen.

Anat Cohen, Poetica and Noir (Anzica). Two new CDs illuminate several facets of the remarkable Israeli reed artist who has become a star of the New York jazz scene. In Poetica, she plays only clarinet, with a rhythm section on some tracks, a string quartet on others. In Noir, with a medium-sized band, Cohen also plays tenor, alto and soprano saxophones. On all of her horns, fullness of tone, richness of conception and joyful presence make her one of the most compelling soloists to emerge in the new century.

Roland Kirk with Jack McDuff, Kirk's Work (Prestige). This reissue in the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series presents Kirk long before he added "Rahsaan" to his name, before he became famous, when he was a tornado roaring out of the Midwest playing three saxophones at once, whistles, flute and siren at the ready on a chain around his neck. Kirk was organized turbulence stirring the air with music. Kirk's Work didn't get nearly the attention it deserved when it came out. It is one of his greatest albums.

Chicago Underground Trio, Chronicle (Delmark). The music is from the trio's Delmark CD of the same name. The latest expression of the avant garde Chicago cornetist and composer Rob Mazurek, it is alternately explosive and reflective and somehow leaves the listener with a sense of calm. The video by Raymond Salvatore Harmon is muted, layered in shifting pastel splashes and patterns over sequences of Mazurek, percussionist Chad Taylor and bassist Jason Ajemian playing. The visual aspect is as dreamlike as the music.

Richard Cook, It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off The Record (Oxford). Yes, another book about Miles Davis. Neither a biography nor a discography, Cook's book has elements of both. The best way to read it is sitting next to your CD player with the fourteen Davis albums Cook analyzes as points of departure in considering the trumpeter's career and importance. It would be helpful to also have the 105 others that he references. Whether or not you do all that listening, Cook is a reliable and stimulating guide through Davis's five decades of changing music and persona.