Archives for May 2019

No sooner had I started to idly wonder what’s happening in one of my favorite former hometowns than Terri Hinte sent a message reminding me of a new album by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. The CD is a tribute to one of the city’s most beloved musical heroes, the late Allen Toussaint, composer of “Southern Nights,” “Java” and innumerable other hits. The members of the orchestra are from across the city and a variety of musical disciplines. When the band is at full strength, it numbers more than twenty musicians. They are led by drummer Adonis Rose, a young veteran of the New Orleans scene. In an introductory video, Rose discusses the philosophy that guides the orchestra

There is also less happy news on the New Orleans jazz front, although according to today’s New York Times, it is headed toward resolution. To read the story by Giovanni Russonello, go here.

 

The staff gauged the rate at which the postwoman is depositing new releases in the Rifftides mailbox and decided that we should pick up the pace of telling you about some of them. This will be the most recent of many doomed attempts to let you know about a flood of jazz albums that seems only to gain in size and speed. If we are to keep up, brevity is a must, even for the most important arrivals.

Let’s begin by continuing our occasional series calling attention to the bands of the US military services. The Airmen Of Note are the big jazz band of the United States Air Force. Their latest release is a three-CD set with guest artists Cyrille Amée, the French singer whose popularity keeps rising; veteran pianist Kenny Barron; and New Orleans saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Each of them stars on one of the discs. In his set, Marsalis runs a gamut that includes a Japanese folk song, compositions by Irving Berlin, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, the 1947 hit “I’ll Close My Eyes” and, from 1913, Raymond Hubbell’s “Panama,” which went on to become one of the first standards in the jazz repertoire. For this classic, Marsalis chose the soprano sax.

                                             

If you get a “video unavailable” screen, please paste this link into your browser and we’ll hope that it takes you to the video:

The staff is working on this connectivity problem.

Come back soon for reviews of–or alerts to–further recent releases

Rifftides reader Orsolya Bene writes, “Listening to jazz on the radio after finishing chores. “North Of The Sunset,” by Thelonious Monk was just playing. Now, it’s the Denny Zeitlin trio. The radio guy must be channeling you.”

If so, he is welcome aboard. Ms. Bene’s message comes after hours of live chat with a computer expert who helped to solve a maddening email snag (is there another kind?) Somewhere there must be a computer owner who doesn’t have these breakdowns. I have never met one. The delay sidetracked certain posting plans that may materialize later. But since she mentioned Monk, let’s enjoy “North Of The Sunset,” a short blues track from from his 1964 solo album on Columbia.

 

Good luck with your own computers. Apparently we all need it.

LATER: Yes, we do. If you get a “video unavailable” message, try to reach the video by going to this YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thelonious+monk+north+of+the+sunset

 

 

We have been meaning to call to your attention to an instance in which–unlike, say, the trade talks between the US and China–international cooperation works beautifully. The  trumpeter featured on this album is Randy Brecker, one of the leading American players of the Instrument for more than fifty years. He performs with Finland’s UMO Jazz Orchestra, led by the distinguished arranger and composer Mats Holmquist, who is Swedish. The CD presents three well-known pieces composed by the American pianist Chick Corea. They are “Windows,” “Crystal Silence” and “Humpty Dumpty,” all arranged by Holmquist. The Finnish composer’s own works include “One Million Circumstances,” in which he creates sections that reflect influences reaching from modern classical music back to counterpoint that suggests J.S. Bach. Brecker comes out blazing in his “Circumstances” solo and maintains his initial  energy in every piece on the album, and achieves dramatic depth in his flugelhorn feature on Ray Evans’ and Jay Livingston’s 1950s ballad “Never Let Me Go.” Holmquist’s “My Stella” celebrates the birth of his daughter and based on-what else?-“Stella By Starlight.” In his notes, Holmquist refers to “All My Things” as a conceptual piece, meaning that its harmonic structure will remind you of Jerome Kern’s “All The Things You Are,” one of the most honored songs of the twentieth century, if borrowing chord progressions can be considered an honor. In this case, it certainly can be.

Randy Brecker is at the top of his game on this album, impressively supported and complemented by Mats Holmquist and the UMO Orchestra.

 

We continue our survey of albums, mostly recent, all part of the unceasing Rifftides effort to make you aware of music that the RT staff deems worth hearing. As I write, I glance down occasionally at the four stacks of new releases dropped off over the past couple of weeks by the mailman, FedEx, UPS and, once in a while, delivery services based in exotic places like Sweden, Brazil and Japan. Paying concentrated attention to all of the new arrivals is out of the question. Some, however, simply cannot be passed over. Here is one of those.

Ralph Peterson & The Messenger Legacy: Legacy Alive (Onyx)

Peterson’s two-disc album is a tribute to Art Blakey, the drummer who inspired him when he was a New Jersey teenager about to turn professional. In his liner notes, Russ Musto calls the Jazz Messengers, “arguably the greatest small group in the history of jazz.”  Those who would argue with Musto’s argument might invoke Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, The Benny Goodman Trio, Charlie Parker with Dizzy Gillespie, and the Art Tatum Trio, among other major groups of previous decades. Assessing degrees of greatness is always a chancy business.

While still in college, Peterson worked with Sonny Stitt, Curtis Fuller, Nat Adderley and other major artists of the post-bop era.  He has long followed Blakey’s dedication to seeking out the most promising younger players available. Those who join him in this collection are youngish but among the most experienced of their generation. They are saxophonists Bill Pierce and Bobby Watson, trumpeter Brian Lynch, bassist Essiet Essiet and pianist Geoffrey Keezer. At one time or another, all worked with Blakey in the Messengers. Peterson has the added distinction of having been chosen by Blakey to be the second drummer in a Blakey big band, working on several occasions with the maestro during Blakey’s final years. His playing here reminds this listener that, in addition to the power he sometimes takes to thunderous levels, Peterson makes exquisite use of quietness and, now and then, the eloquence of silence. Essiet, Keezer and the horn players all have splendid solos, with Lynch’s trumpet frequently soaring above the ensemble, his tone remarkably full even while it penetrates the atmosphere. The music was handsomely recorded during two evenings at the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Sometimes, with all of that Incoming album traffic, things get lost or misplaced. Here is one that should not have. It is a joy
to become reaquainted with this treasure. Even better news; a bit of research discloses that it is still available. The artist is Guido Basso, a great Canadian trumpeter and flugelhorn player. You may know of him through his extensive work over many years with Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass. Prolific as a musician in Montreal, then Toronto, Basso was in demand as a quick study in studio work and, more important, for his tonal qualities and creativity, which are beautifully represented in Lost In The Stars, an album from 2003. In addition to Basso’s flugelhorn playing, there is splendid work by pianist Lorraine Desmarais, bassist Michel Donato and drummer Paul Brochu, with an orchestra conducted by yet another gifted Canadian, saxophonist Phil Dwyer. To hear the Kurt Weill title tune from Basso’s Lost In The Stars…

 

Stephans, Liebman, Copland, Gress: Quartette Oblique (Sunnyside)

Attempting the impossible, Rifftides once again tries to catch up. We all know that is impossible because record companies refuse to accept that jazz is dead; they keep releasing new music. It took too long for me to mention this superb quartet album, which has been out for a year or so. From Dave Liebman’s falling-away tenor saxophone insinuations that introduce Wayne Shorter’s “Nardis” through the concluding exploration of Miles Davis’s “So What” and “All Blues.” Liebman, drummer Michael Stephans, pianist Marc Copland and bassist Drew Gress meld in intriguing versions not only of the two modern classics by Shorter and Davis but also the Schwartz & Deitz Standard “You And The Night And The Music,” Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood,” and bassist Gress’s composition “Vesper.” Copland’s harmonic sensivity and keyboard touch are superb in the Gress piece. Liebman’s capacious tenor sax sound and conception match the relaxation and assurance in Gress’s writing and soloing. Liebman maintains the high standard he has set for himself over the past year or two as he excels not only in his own projects but in a series of guest appearances on other artists’ albums. Quartette Oblique was recorded before a responsive audience at the venerable Deers Head Inn in the Pennsylvania Mountains. It wears well, and is likely to through many hearings.