The time when most recordings came from a handful of major labels is![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Listening.jpg\")
”\u00a0long past. As I have observed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith only”\u00a0enough exaggeration to make the point\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnow, every 18-year-old tenor player can be a record company. He or she can take advantage of technology and economies of scale that make it possible to record, package and market an album at a tiny fraction of what it cost in the days when the major labels ruled the record business.<\/p>\n
One result is that new jazz recordings stream into Rifftides<\/em> world headquarters without letup. There is no way to review even a small percentage of them, but here are mentions of three fairly recent ones that caught the staff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n C\u00c3\u00a9cile McLorin Salvant<\/strong>, Dreams And Daggers<\/a><\/em> (Mack Avenue)<\/p>\n Pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Lawrence Leathers comprise no small part of Ms. Salvant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s artistic success. Their accompanying is crucial to it, and Diehl continues in his early thirties to prove himself a pianist who has solo gifts that could put him into the jazz piano hall of fame, if there is one.<\/p>\n Perhaps repeated hearings of the Vanguard audience\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whooping, hollering ovations get to be a bit much, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the response that Ms. Salvant inspired, so there it is\u00e2\u20ac\u201don the record.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anat Cohen Tentet<\/strong>, Happy Song<\/a><\/em> (Anzic)<\/p>\n From her first unaccompanied clarinet notes in the joyous title tune Levi-Ari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clever touches include an amusing interjection of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Salt Peanuts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into his adaptation of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh Baby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a 1924 Owen Murphy piece first recorded by Bix Beiderbecke. He achieves tongue-in-cheek eeriness in the introduction to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Trills and Thrills.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d After the spookiness, the piece transmutes into a full-bodied ballad tinged with the blues. It has an intense clarinet solo by Ms. Cohen. The three parts of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Doina\u00e2\u20ac\u009d encompass dance-like klezmer passages and a resourceful use of Victor Goncalves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accordion and Robin Kodheli\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cello to enhance the Middle Eastern atmosphere. Further high points: the irresistible thrust of samba feeling in Egberto Gismonti\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Loro;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Levi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrangement of Gordon Jenkins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Goodbye\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Ms. Cohen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s respectful treatment of the melody; the purity of Finzer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trombone high notes and Ms. Noordhuis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flugelhorn in Ms. Cohen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Valsa Para Alice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot going on here\u00e2\u20ac\u201din the playing and the arranging. Repeated hearings disclose layered subtleties. Happy Song<\/em> enriches Anat Cohen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s substantial discography.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Logan Strosahl Team<\/strong>, Book I Of Arthur<\/a><\/em> (Sunnyside)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Salvant-Dreams-1.jpg\")
With three distinguished albums and a Grammy award (for For One To Love<\/a><\/em>) to her credit, Ms. Salvant went into New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Village Vanguard about a year ago for an engagement. The resulting in-person performances with her trio, just released, are interspersed with four studio recordings featuring a string quartet. The result is a collection in which she sings several established pieces and a few original compositions and leaves little doubt that she is moving into the rarified category occupied by such vocal heroes as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Day, Peggy Lee and few other singers. Her speedy short version, with just bass and drums, of the 1922 pop song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Runnin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Wild\u00e2\u20ac\u009d alone would be enough to certify her control, confidence and musicianship. She goes beyond technique to reaffirm the width and depth of her emotional interpretation in ballads that include Noel Coward\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mad About The Boy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and\u00e2\u20ac\u201despecially\u00e2\u20ac\u201din a coruscating reading of the Gershwins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gone Now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Cohen-Happy.jpg\")
\nthrough Malian musician Neba Solo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concluding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kenedougon Foly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ms. Cohen and her tentet have a multi-faceted good time. Chances are, listeners will, too. With its warmth, roominess and range, her clarinet dominates the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aura of good feeling, but there are also infectious solos from trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis, trombonist Nick Finzer, baritone saxophonist Owen Broder and guitarist Sheryl Bailey, among others. Ms. Cohen and her Israeli homeland pal, arranger Oded Lev-Ari, produced the album.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Strosahl-Arthur.jpg\")
Alto saxophonist and composer Logan Strosahl and his longtime associate pianist Nick Sanders continue their rewarding adventures. This time they have expanded well beyond the duo format that brought them attention as YouTube<\/em> regulars, and beyond the sextet of their previous Sunnyside album,