Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra, Without A Trace (Origin)

Reeves’ second big band album for Origin features players in the top level of New York musicians. Saxophonists Steve Wilson, Vito Chiavuzzo, Tim Armacost and Rob Middleton are among the impressive soloists, along with trombonist Matt Haviland, trumpeter Andy Gravish, pianist Jim Ridl, and Reeves on flugelhorn and trombone. In Reeves’ title tune Carolyn Leonhart’s vocal is cool, contained and flawlessly delivered, however mundane the lyric. She might profitably have also been assigned a standard ballad with words by, say, Frank Loesser, Dorothy Fields or Johnny Mercer.

Reeves’ trombone solo on his composition “Shapeshifter” hews to the piece’s distinctive character; it is languid, then agitated and—finally—satisfyingly resolved. Indeed, that can be said of the leader’s most adventurous writing here. In his liner notes he claims that the shout chorus in “All Or Nothing At All” has “more quotes than I care to admit.” He needn’t have lost sleep over it; the quotes are logical and fit the harmonies. Knowledgeable listeners will find them clever. Drummer Andy Watson is a rhythmic mainstay throughout the album, performing hand-in-hand with pianist Ridl and bassist Todd Coolman.

Moving on to other new, or newish, releases, let’s not dwell on the customary Rifftides penchant for pointing out the obvious—that is there is more music than anyone can keep up with. Allow us to briefly (very briefly) alert you to recent releases that have caught the ear of the staff.

Wayne Escoffery, Vortex (Sunnyside)

Escoffery, a massively talented tenor saxophonist, left trumpeter Tom Harrell a couple of years ago to found his own quartet. Vortex finds him with pianist David Kikoski, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. in nine powerful performances. Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt is the guest on Escoffery’s lyrical “In His Eyes.” Otherwise, it’s the quartet in compositions by its members, along with Harrell’s gorgeous ballad “February.” Escoffery’s liner note essay traces his own and The United States’ experience with racism at a time when, he says, “the people leading the country are the ones exemplifying the worst in men and scaring youth rather than inspiring them.” Escoffery’s “The Devil’s Den” seems to reflect upon that atmosphere, with the power of Peterson’s drum interjections abetting Escoffery’s intense minor key tenor solo. As Escoffery raises a young son in what he calls “the duality of this country,” the music amplifies the concern he expresses in his essay. It’s quite a package, musically and otherwise.

Ivo Perelman, Octagon (Leo Records)

Born in Brazil, in 1961, Perelman has become a contender for the title of most-recorded saxophonist in the world. The last list I’ve seen has the count at 81 albums. Those are apart from the many he has co-led or taken part in as a sideman, often with pianist Matthew Shipp. Octagon finds him, unusually, with another horn player who is also an avant garde adventurer, trumpeter Nate Wooley. The album has eight tracks or parts, beginning, logically enough, with “Part 1.” All are what has come to be labeled, since the advent of Ornette Coleman, free jazz. All make demands on the listener to accept tonal manipulation and, unusually,
abandonment of strict time. All can be engrossing, even the reactive “Part 5,” which at 1:39 is the shortest track on the album and one of the most interesting. Open your mind to Perelman’s music and you may find yourself intrigued.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Cheek To Cheek: The Complete Duet Recordings (Verve)

If Ivo Perelman was not exposed to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald when he was growing up in Sao Paulo, he was a most unusual developing musician. As Perelman approached his teens, Ella and Louis were still ubiquitous on radios and jukeboxes around the world. This four-CD collection combines their three enormously popular Verve albums with their Decca 78-RPM singles going back as far as 1946. Hearing the pair’s joyous interaction, the perfection of their phrasing, and their intonation, amounts to a lesson in not only musicianship but also in popular culture. Even a bauble like “The Frim Fram Sauce” from 1946 makes it tempting to compare this collection to the most recent Billboard top 40. Post Malone, anyone? Bazzi? Marshmello & Anne-Marie?

But what’s the point of that? The point is to recommend this Armstrong-Fitzgerald package to anyone in the market for virtually unyielding quality and taste. Care for a sample? Click here.

More recent listening is coming soon on Rifftides. Please join us.

The admonition above may seem contradictory, since Labor Day was designed to honor those who labor by giving them the day off. We presume that workers in the US and in Canada (where this is Labour Day), are observing the intent with picnics, ball games, jugs of lemonade and family festivities of all kinds. It is unlikely that Thelonious Monk (pictured) had Labor Day in mind when he composed “Work” for his first Prestige recording session. But for our purposes, let’s say that Monk intended this ingenious melody as a tribute to working men and women everywhere. Monk, bassist Gary Mapp and drummer Art Blakey recorded the piece on October 15, 1952. Let’s listen to it together on Labor Day, 2018.  (Despite the cover information, Sonny Rollins does not appear on this track.)

Pianist and composer Randy Weston, who championed the African origins of jazz, died at home in New York yesterday. He was 92. With his distinctive rhythmic patterns and powerful harmonic progressions, Weston underlined the African heritage that so definitively helped shape the music’s development. He frequently visited and performed in Nigeria and other African nations. For a time in the late ‘60s he lived in Tangier, Morocco, and opened a club there.

Several of Weston’s compositions long since took their places among the most durable pieces in the modern jazz repertoire. One of his earliest was the ubiquitous “Hi Fly,” a part of the 1959 album he recorded at New York’s Five Spot Cafe. The other participants were Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophone; Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Wilbur Little, bass; and Clifford Jarvis, drums.

This summer for the first time in several years, circumstances prevented my covering the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. Rifftides reader—and sometimes commentator—John Bolger attended the 2018 festival. After he got back to Ireland, he kindly sent a report about his first trip to Ystad. Here is John’s message, illustrated with his photos, except the one of Cecile McLorin Savant, which is by Kenny Fransson.

For many years, I have read your wonderful postings about concerts of the Ystad Festival on the shores of the Baltic Sea in southern Sweden. This year, I kept my promise to myself that some year I would be there. Unfortunately, I picked a year when it was not possible for you to go. It would have been great to meet up. Here is a brief résumé of my time in Ystad, in return for of all the wonderful reviews you have written about this great festival and town. Over 5 days, there were 42 concerts. I got to over a third of them. This is a summary of a few.

The opening event for me was walking in the opening parade through the streets of Ystad with about 300 others led by the “The Second Line Jazzband” from Gothenburg playing New Orleans revival style music. They closed the parade with a rousing rendition of “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

The first concert I attended was Cecile McLorin Salvant at the magnificent Ystad arena. She sang a repertoire from all of her four her albums to date, including last year’s album Dreams and Daggers, which won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album of 2018.

Making a return to the concert after playing in 2010 and 2011 was vocalist Youn Sun Nah. Although she speaks in a very soft and shy manner, her voice explodes in a repertoire of American songs, French chansons and the traditional music of her homeland, South Korea. Her lengthy version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” brought me goose bumps to me and tears to the eyes of Youn Sun Nah (and the audience), so powerful was her rendition of this wonderful song.

Flautist Magnus Lindgren, and his band played songs from his most recent album “Stockholm Underground”, homage to Herbie Mann and Mann’s legendary 1969 album “Memphis Underground. One of the highlights was their version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and “Brutal Truth” written by pianist and vocalist Ida Sand, who joined the band for this and some other songs.

The amazing Israeli trumpeter, Avishai Cohen (pictured above) gave a magnificent performance playing with Sweden’s Bohuslän Big Band, made up of 5 saxophones, 4 trombones, 5 violins, piano, bass and drums. He announced that they had met only the day before, but they somehow pulled off a flawless performance. All of the compositions were Cohen’s with the exception of his tremendous tribute to Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”.

Australian vocalist and lyricist, Trudy Kerr, based in the UK, played with her own Trio and Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko. Playing in the courtyard of the beautiful centuries-old building “Per Helsas Gard,” she sang music from her most recent album “Take Five, The Music of Paul Desmond”. Ms. Kerr wrote lyrics to most of the songs she performed, such as “Desmond Blue,” “Take Ten,” “Late Lament” and “Wendy.” Her vocal range was wonderful, and she did justice to Paul’s music. Star of the show for me, though, was Jukka Perko whose playing was as close in tone to Paul’s as I have ever heard, with the exception of Brent Jensen.

One of the highlights for me was the concert performed by a grouping of young, female talented European jazz artists brought together specifically for a unique concert in the ballroom of Ystad’s sumptuous Hotel Saltsjöbad. Their working name was “Crossing Borders.” The septet (pictured above) was made up of Elin Larsson (Sweden), saxophone; Tini Thomsen (Denmark), baritone saxophone; Susana Santos Silva (Portugal), trumpet; Lisa Stick (Denmark), trombone; Fanny Gunnarsson (Sweden) piano; Ida Hvid (Denmark), bass and Anne Paceo (France) drums. The compositions by various members of the group, were mesmerizing and brought a lengthy standing ovation from the audience the Saltsjöbad audience. They advised they had only met the day before and had practiced for 9 hours “to ensure their performance was good”. It was excellent. I noted that they were recorded. I hope that someday the music gets out to a worldwide audience.

One of the great jazz trumpeters, Paolo Fresu, played with his own band “The Devil Quartet”. The material was mainly from their latest album, the totally acoustic Carpe Diem. The audience were very familiar with Paulo, who has played at the Ystad festival on numerous occasions. They gave him a rapturous welcome, and an ovation at the end of a great concert.

Bill Evans, a tenor and soprano saxophonist who played with Miles Davis in the 1980s and made six albums with him, joined at Ystad with Ulf Wakenius, a guitarist in the quartet of Oscar Peterson for almost 11 years. With them was Per Mathisen of Norway on bass and, for me, one of the best drummers at the festival, Keith Carlock from America. At the end of a rousing performance there was an audience request for “Jean Pierre” which Bill had played with Miles all those years ago. Somewhat reluctantly the quartet, having never played it, improvised an arrangement on the spot. As the saying goes, “that’s Jazz.”

I had two personal favourites among the concerts I attended. First was the amazing Lizz Wright from Georgia, whose music I adore. Her voice on the night of her concert reminded me a lot of a mixture of Cassandra Wilson, Norah Jones and Eva Cassidy. She sang mostly from last year’s album “Grace” which marked a return to her southern roots and the harmonic configurations of gospel music. Her quartet members were amazing, in particular the great Bobby Sparks on keyboards and Hammond organ. Two songs were highlights, Rose Cousins’s “Grace” and “Seems I’m Never Of Tired Lovin’ You”. The ovation she received made it evident that all those attending will never stop loving Lizz Wright. Amazing concert. I am unsure why this lady had never received the recognition that some of her contemporaries have.

The overall highlight for me was the concert of the Monty Alexander Trio. Monty, who was guest of honour of the festival, played with Hassan Shakur, bass; and Obed Calvaire, drums. Monty rolled back the years with a virtuoso performance made up primarily of American standards. When he gave a nod to his Jamaican roots by playing “No Woman No Cry” the audience responded with several minutes of applause. I learned that in Sweden the audience only expect one encore. Then they leave. Monty was brought back for 3 encores including a tribute to his hero and the man who discovered him, Frank Sinatra, appropriately “In the Wee Small Hours Of The Morning” – it was 12.40 at that stage. His wife, the Italian vocalist Caterina Zapponi, joined him in one of the songs.

Before he departed the stage, Monty spoke in a teary voice and said, reluctantly, that 5 days before, he had suffered a stroke that paralyzed a large portion of his left side. He said that he hoped that the next time he played, “I promise I will be better”. We were in total shock. He could not possibly have played any better. He advised that he had traveled against doctors’ orders, but said he was so happy that he had done so. I spoke to the festival organizer, pianist Jan Lundgren, after one of the concerts. He said that he had no idea beforehand about what had happened to Monty. It was one great concert that will long be in my memory.

The closing 3-hour gala concert (pictured above) was an all-star extravaganza and mix of musical genres of the Nils Landgren Funk Unit, the Jan Lundgren Trio, the 15-piece string ensemble Musica Vitae plus Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, German drummer Wolfgang Haffner and Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko. Nils Landgren has cult status in Sweden.

Before The Funk Unit joined the stage the highlights were “Norwegian Wood” by Nils and Jan, Miles Davis’s “So What” from Nils, Jan, Paulo, Jukka, Mattias and Wolfgang, and an amazing version of “Si Doice e il Tormento” from Jan and Paolo.

Close to the end of their set, Nils and the Funk Unit requested the audience to stand up and jive the night away. Up to this point my impression of the Swedish nation and its people was that they were quiet and conservative. Seeing 1500 people, whose average age was—let’s say—well above 50, dance and move with such enthusiasm was an incredible sight and a joy to hold. What an ending.

Jan Lundgren and his fantastic committee assembled a range of established American and European stars along with a group of established and emerging Nordic talent. I took Ystad and its people to my heart. I very much hope to make the journey there again. I would never have heard of Ystad and never made this journey were it not for you, Doug. Thank you.

 

Thanks for a fine report, John. I was sorry not to have attended, but your enthusiasm helps bring the festival, and Ystad, to life.

The percussionist Jack Costanzo was so closely identified with his instrument that early in his career he became known as “Mr. Bongo.” Costanzo died over the weekend at his home near San Diego, California. He was 98. During his long career he worked with Stan Kenton, Nat Cole, Charlie Parker and dozens of other musical stars. He was frequently featured in motion pictures and television programs in duets with celebrities including dancer Ann Miller, singer Judy Garland and actor Marlon Brando—a fellow bongo player who studied with Costanzo.

Video of Costanzo performing seems to be rare, but this one made at an unidentified friend’s birthday party shows him in action. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but the audio is fine. The YouTube caption says, “Check out his left hand independence while playing the bongos and conga drum!”