{"id":10203,"date":"2018-09-05T16:55:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T23:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10203"},"modified":"2018-09-24T23:10:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T06:10:59","slug":"recent-listening-scott-reeves-and-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/09\/recent-listening-scott-reeves-and-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Scott Reeves and others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Reeves<\/strong> Jazz Orchestra, Without A Trace<\/em><\/a> (Origin)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Reeves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 title tune Carolyn Leonhart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n

Reeves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 trombone solo on his composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shapeshifter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hews to the piece\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distinctive character; it is languid, then agitated and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfinally\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsatisfyingly resolved. Indeed, that can be said of the leader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most adventurous writing here. In his liner notes he claims that the shout chorus in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Or Nothing At All\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more quotes than I care to admit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He needn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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.<\/p>\n

Moving on to other new, or newish, releases, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not dwell on the customary Rifftides<\/em> penchant for pointing out the obvious\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wayne Escoffery<\/strong>, Vortex<\/a><\/em> (Sunnyside)<\/p>\n

Escoffery, a massively talented tenor saxophonist, left trumpeter Tom Harrell a couple of\"\"<\/a> years ago to found his own quartet. Vortex<\/em> 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyrical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In His Eyes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Otherwise, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the quartet in compositions by its members, along with Harrell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gorgeous ballad \u00e2\u20ac\u0153February.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Escoffery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liner note essay traces his own and The United States\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 experience with racism at a time when, he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the people leading the country are the ones exemplifying the worst in men and scaring youth rather than inspiring them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Escoffery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Den\u00e2\u20ac\u009d seems to reflect upon that atmosphere, with the power of Peterson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drum interjections abetting Escoffery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intense minor key tenor solo. As Escoffery raises a young son in what he calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the duality of this country,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the music amplifies the concern he expresses in his essay. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a package, musically and otherwise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ivo Perelman<\/strong>, Octagon<\/em> (Leo Records)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Born in Brazil, in 1961, Perelman has become a contender for the title of most-recorded saxophonist in the world. The last list I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve 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<\/em> 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Part 1.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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,
\nabandonment 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music and you may find yourself intrigued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong<\/strong>, Cheek To Cheek<\/em>: The Complete Duet Recordings<\/em><\/a> (Verve)<\/p>\n

If Ivo Perelman was not exposed to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald when he was growing\"\"<\/a> 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Frim Fram Sauce\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from 1946 makes it tempting to compare this collection to the most recent Billboard<\/em> top 40. Post Malone, anyone? Bazzi? Marshmello & Anne-Marie?<\/p>\n

But what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More recent listening is coming soon on Rifftides<\/em>. Please join us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra, Without A Trace (Origin) Reeves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}