{"id":9341,"date":"2018-04-02T15:34:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T22:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9341"},"modified":"2018-05-27T20:02:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T03:02:21","slug":"recent-listening-in-brief-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/04\/recent-listening-in-brief-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening In Brief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent Listening<\/strong> In Brief<\/strong><\/p>\n

Edward Simon<\/strong>, Sorrows & Triumphs<\/a> (Sunnyside)<\/p>\n

\"\"Pianist-composer-arranger Simon is engrossed in jazz, his heritage in Latin-American music and his studies of Buddhism. Sorrows & Triumphs<\/em> blends those and other aspects of his preoccupations, and Simon refines the individuality that has made him one of the most interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u201dalthough insufficiently recognized\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmusicians to have emerged in the past three decades. The album, due for release this month, brings together the combo known as the Imani Winds<\/em> with Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ensemble Afinidad<\/em> and vocalist Gretchen Parlato. Afinidad<\/em> includes alto saxophonist David Binney, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade. Percussionist Rogerio Boccato and Luis Quintero and guitarist Adam Rogers are guest artists. If that rundown reads like the description of a contemporary all-star group, it is.<\/p>\n

The album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two sections of music, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sorrows and Triumphs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153House of Numbers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d encompass a variety of moods and textures. For all its liveliness in some pieces, the collection has an air of contemplation about it. That is particularly true of Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final two pieces, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chant\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Venezuela Unida,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the latter clearly created with his native country in mind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rich DeRos<\/strong>a, Perseverence<\/a><\/em> (University of North Texas)<\/p>\n

Distinguished as a jazz educator at the University of North Texas, Rich De Rosa has wider\"\" recognition as one of the premier arrangers of the 21st<\/sup> century. Since joining the UNT faculty in 2010, DeRosa has written brilliantly for the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legendary One O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Clock and Two O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Clock Lab Bands and for other orchestras in the United States and abroad. Perseverance<\/em> provides copious evidence of his mastery. It includes a dazzling version of Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take The \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Train\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; a fugue full of wit and complexities; perfectly integrated electronics in the title tune; a quiet, reflective version of the Wayne Shorter ballad \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Infant Eyes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; the expansive five-part \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Suite For An Anniversary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; and a tribute to the longtime UNT jazz program head Neil Slater. Slater\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work fills this 4-CD UNT box<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the One O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock Band ”\u00a0And and Two O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock Band soloists, it stretches belief to accept that they are students, not seasoned professionals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Azar Lawrence<\/strong>, Elementals<\/a> (High Note)<\/p>\n

\"\"Lawrence was one of the young saxophonists all but consumed by John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revolutionary transformation of the instrument\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in jazz in the 1960s. Elementals<\/em> establishes that on soprano and tenor sax, he continues as a loyal Coltrane disciple. Particularly on the title track, the Latinate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brazilian Girls\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153African Chant,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he reestablishes his dedication to Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expansiveness and vitality, although with little evidence of his mentor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tonal graininess on tenor. Pianist Benito Gonzales is correspondingly loyal to McCoy Tyner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energetic approach. Drummer Marvin \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Smitty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Smith is supportive and energetic throughout. Guest guitarist Greg Poree adds atmospheric touches to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Solar Winds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d An odd matter of titleing: the piece called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Koko\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bears no apparent relationship to the classic Charlie Parker composition of the same name that was based on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cherokee.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The album is enjoyable and stimulating not in spite of but because of what we might call its Coltraneity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Willie Nelson, American Classic<\/a> (Blue Note)<\/p>\n

Sometimes an album arrives, sinks into the sea of new releases and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surface for years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\"\" what happened with American Classic<\/em>. When the minimally packaged 2009 advance release finally popped out of hiding, I hoped that it would be a worthy successor to Nelson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stardust<\/a><\/em>, his previous collection of standard songs. Sorry, it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Johnny Mandel provided arrangements of four songs, but anyone who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that would never have guessed it based on the evidence. ”\u00a0Diana Krall and Nora Jones are”\u00a0sui generis<\/em>”\u00a0as duet partners on a couple of tracks. If the rest of the pieces had the verve and insouciance that Nelson finds in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On The Street Where You Live\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and his bluesy touches to Buddy Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since I Fell For You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it would come closer to the claim of the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent Listening In Brief Edward Simon, Sorrows & Triumphs (Sunnyside) Pianist-composer-arranger Simon is engrossed in jazz, his heritage in Latin-American music and his studies of Buddhism. Sorrows & Triumphs blends those and other aspects of his preoccupations, and Simon refines the individuality that has made him one of the most interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u201dalthough insufficiently recognized\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmusicians to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9342,"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-9341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341","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=9341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}