![\"images\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/images.jpg\")
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The weekend is a good time to consider music that the Rifftides<\/em> staff has ignored, overlooked or allowed to languish among the burgeoning boxes of incoming CDs. Keeping up isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hard to do; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible, but here are three albums rescued from the stacks. All are of recent vintage, meaning that they were released in or near the present decade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Jazz Thieves<\/em><\/strong>, Brooklyn Elegy<\/a> (CD Baby)<\/p>\n Bassist John Gray leads a quartet whose publicity claims that they are inspired by a strange-bedfellow sort of eclecticism\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDuke Ellington, Ray Charles and Tom Waits. There may also![\"thejazzthieves\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/thejazzthieves.jpg\")
be a dash of Mose Allison. In any case, this tight little band draws on rock, pop, gospel and blues for a series of performances with a distinct contemporary New York edge. Pianist Matt Robbins sings Gray\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compositions and lyrics in a light voice that on the title tune he laces with a tough-guy growl. Tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito matches Robbins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 toughness with her obbligatos and solos on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Hopeful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Turn Out OK.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gray uses his bow to dramatic effect in the ballad \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cayuga.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Drummer Tim Ford weaves a backbeat into his cymbal and snare patterns on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Friday.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This short, solid album could have what it takes for”\u00a0a”\u00a0breakthrough of the kind that occasionally happens to independently published books.<\/p>\n
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The MJQ was born as the rhythm section of Dizzy Gillespie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big band. They first recorded on their own for Prestige Records in 1952. By the mid-1950s pianist John Lewis had achieved his vision of the quartet as the jazz parallel to classical chamber groups\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith a firm bebop and blues foundation. Lewis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Django\u00e2\u20ac\u009d became a jazz standard that boosted the quartet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fame. It led to commissions for film scores including No Sun in Venice<\/em>, whose \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cort\u00c3\u00a8ge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d section is adapted in this album. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Django\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Lewis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mids\u00c3\u00b6mmer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are spirited collaborations with studio orchestras. The repertoire includes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buesology,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Remember April\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and other MJQ staples at a time when the quartet was breaking out as a phenomenon and the members were feeling good about themselves. Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay sound ebullient, nowhere more than in the impromptu \u00e2\u20ac\u0153J.B. Blues\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that ends the album.<\/p>\n![\"mattias-nilsson\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Mattias-Nilsson.jpg\")
the rhythm section accompanying singer Sharon Clark and was intrigued. His solo album Dreams of Belonging<\/em> arrived a few weeks ago and intrigued me further. It opens with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Folk Melody From V\u00c3\u00a4stmanland\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and includes three other pieces with folk-like melodies incorporating major\/minor harmonic aspects that make so much Swedish music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwell\u00e2\u20ac\u201dintriguing. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether Thore Swanerud\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153S\u00c3\u00b6dermalm\u00e2\u20ac\u009d came to Nilsson equipped with the bluesy turns he gives it or they are his own, but he makes it compelling. Touch, phrasing and blending with keyboard and pedal are among Nilsson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strong suits. They are valuable assets in the performance of his lyrical title tune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"