Kendra Shank, Mosaic (Challenge). With her previous CD of Abbey Lincoln songs, Shank firmly differentiated herself from the overcrowded current field of women who declare themselves jazz singers. Mosaic takes her a step further. It elevates Shank into the company of the few singers capable of using … [Read more...]

Branford Marsalis, Metamorphosen (Marsalis Music). In the decade the saxophonist's quartet has been making music together, this is its most satisfying album. There's the usual dynamism, even aggressiveness, but little of the anger that Marsalis, Joey Calderazzo, Eric Reavis and Jeff "Tain" Watts … [Read more...]

Steven Bernstein, We Are MTO (Mowo!) Trumpeter Bernstein's vision for his Millennial Territory Orchestra runs forward and back, with stops in the 1920s, the future and points between. Inspiration comes from, among others, Fats Waller, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Lennon & McCartney, Preston … [Read more...]

Raymond De Felitta, 'Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris (Outsider Pictures). Jackie Paris may be all the evidence we need that talent is not enough. The remarkable singer had a burst of popularity and was adored by the jazz community when bebop was dominant. Then, except for brief reappearances … [Read more...]

Jeff "Tain" Watts, Watts (Dark Keys). The vigorous drummer is in charge of a quartet with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and bassist Christian McBride. There's a lovely ballad ("Owed"), shuckin' and jivin' ("Dancin' 4 Chicken," take 25), a variation on Monk's "Trinkle, … [Read more...]

Zoot Sims in Copenhagen (Storyville). This catches the great tenor saxophonist in a 1978 club performance with the stellar rhythm section of pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pederson and drummer Ed Thigpen. No Sims version of "I'll Remember April," a staple in his repertoire, has … [Read more...]

Jim Hall & Bill Frisell, Hemispheres (ArtistShare). Hall inspired Frisell. The younger guitarist famously became what Hall would have encouraged him to be, his own man. On Dialogues in 1995, they showed flashes of what they could develop together. On this 2-CD set, they follow through, in duo and … [Read more...]

Nels Cline, Coward (Cryptogramophone). Hall and Frisell have impressed Cline. Jimmy Hendrix and John Abercrombie also seem to be in his DNA. Here, Cline is alone with his influences, his guitars, an arsenal of electronics and his startling originality. Despite his searching edginess, the CD is … [Read more...]

Louis Armstrong All Stars Live In Australia 1964 (Medici Arts). Armstrong, Trummy Young, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw, Danny Barcelona and Joe Darensbourg were wired. No one was phoning it in this day. The Australian television crew did a masterly job of capturing the complete concert. The closeups catch … [Read more...]

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, Quake (Sunnyside). Pianist-composer-arranger Holober chooses not to call his large congregation a big band. His scoring justifies the term orchestra. Balancing lushness with motion in and through the horn and rhythm sections, he evokes nature; the … [Read more...]

Gene Perla, Bill''s Waltz (PM). Drummer Elvin Jones should get equal billing with Perla. The two laid down basic electric piano-and-drums tracks in 1986. Following Jones' death in 2004, Perla wrote orchetrations for the pieces. With Jones digitally present, he recorded them in 2007 with the NDR … [Read more...]

Various, Brooklyn Jazz Underground, Volume 3 (BJU). If you have heard that Brooklyn is a hotbed of young jazz artists but haven't the foggiest idea what they are about, this compilation will give you a summary. Twenty-eight musicians in combinations from a duo to a sextet stretch your ears and the … [Read more...]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk Live in '63 & '67 (Jazz Icons). One of eight DVDs in the impressive Jazz Icons third release, this finds Kirk touring Europe with his arsenal of horns. It is fascinating to watch him manage tenor sax, manzello, stritch, clarinet, siren and nose whistle. The forthright music … [Read more...]

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics). Cather is in a class with A.B. Guthrie, Jr. and Bernard DeVoto in her feeling for the expanse and expansiveness of early America. This tale of two French priests carving their church territory out of a resistant New Mexico is an … [Read more...]

Ernestine Anderson, Hot Cargo (Fresh Sound).    In these 1956 sessions, Anderson's early singing has lost none of its naturalness, musicality or appeal. Her accompaniments by Harry Arnold's big band and Duke Jordan's trio sound equally fresh. I wrote earlier that this was one of the … [Read more...]

Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, Tabligh, (Cuneiform). " stalwart of the avant garde for" nearly four decades, Smith continues at the head of the pack in free jazz. In this set of four moody, barely-structured pieces, the trumpeter frequently evokes late-period Miles Davis. He sometimes takes the … [Read more...]

Alexander String Quartet, Retrospections (Foghorn Classics). The ASQ plumbs the seriousness, assertiveness and sense of glee in quartets 1, 2 and 3 of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wayne Peterson. Peterson draws on inspiration from sources as varied as samba, bluegrass, the bebop of Charlie … [Read more...]

The Bobby Shew Story (Skyhigh Films). The great trumpeter talks about his career -- stumbling into a jam session at age fifteen and discovering that he had the gift of improvisation -- deciding to give up studio work: "I realized I was on a chain like a pet monkey" -- the joy of losing his fear of … [Read more...]

Ted Gioia, Delta Blues (W.W. Norton). Those who think that their musical sophistication places basic blues beneath consideration are likely to benefit from Gioia's exhaustive, deeply informative study. He concentrates on Mississippi Delta blues and its heroes including Robert Johnson, Son House, … [Read more...]