This begins a survey of a few of the albums that have arrived lately and in a few cases, not so lately. There are still observers who claim\u00e2\u20ac\u201dagainst massive evidence to the contrary\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat jazz is a dying genre, but even if a reviewer went without sleep and lived to be 135, he would have no chance of hearing more than a sampling of the vast outpouring of jazz recordings. It continues unabated.
\n![\"Wall](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Wall-to-wall-CDs.jpg\")
\nThese days, many fewer albums come from the major labels that once dominated the jazz record business, or from their successors. However, as someone once said (I think it was I), the digital revolution makes it possible, for every 18-year-old tenor player to be a record company and pass out CDs as if they were business cards. The albums reviewed below do not reflect that trend.<\/p>\n
![\"robertomagris](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/robertomagris-Need-To....jpg\")
With young Kansas Citians Dominique Sanders (bass) and Brian Steever (drums) in his trio, the prolific Italian pianist follows up his 2015 Emigmatix<\/em>. Magris decorates his improvisations with keyboard runs and swirls that enhance excitement without putting a hitch in his solid bebop approach. The compositions are primarily by Magris. Highlights include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Out There Somewhere\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What Love,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is nearly ten minutes of exhilarating soloing and interaction on famous Cole Porter harmonic changes. The trio invests the late Don Pullen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Joycie Girl\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with insistent bounce. Magris plays beautifully on Billy Eckstine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Want To Talk About You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but a guest female vocalist has problems with the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low notes. A different vocalist sings two other songs without range difficulties but is saddled with mundane lyrics. Perhaps as a service to listeners who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the message from the music, two narrators in a final \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Audio Notebook\u00e2\u20ac\u009d promote the goal of the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title.<\/p>\n![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Ian-Carey-Interview-Music-.jpg\")
explains that he writes music not to label it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153about something\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in order to snag foundation grants, but to employ what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learned and make it work for him and his players. Interview Music<\/em> does that. Even better, it works for the listener. Carey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influences reflect not only his extensive academic study but also include a long list of composers from before Bach to Stravinsky, Ellington, Mingus, Hindemith, Gil Evans, Clare Fischer and Maria Schneider. His sextet plays the five-part suite with drive, wit, swing and a palpable unity of purpose. It is complex chamber music with solo space for Carey, long an impressive trumpeter; bass clarinetist Sheldon Brown; alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen; pianist Adam Shulman; bassist Fred Randolph; and drummer Jon Arkin. They are among the cream of the Bay Area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jazz community. In a victory for his creative policy, the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music supported Interview Music<\/em> with a grant despite its not being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153about something,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which, of course, it is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about music.<\/p>\n