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CATCHING UP<\/strong><\/p>\n When albums come out of the mailbox in batches of five, six, eight a day\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor more\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit is possible to overlook, set aside or misplace some that are worthy of mention. Here are recommendations of a few that have languished on the shelf, some briefly, others for a while.<\/p>\n Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints<\/strong>, Scandal<\/a><\/em> (Greenleaf Music)<\/p>\n Allen Toussaint<\/strong>, American Tunes<\/em><\/a> (Nonesuch)<\/p>\n The late paragon of New Orleans music (1938-2015) recorded this album shortly before he died. The![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/716EJJywJaL._SX522_.jpg\")
Years of playing together have refined the compatibility that saxophonist Lovano and trumpeter Douglas have displayed since their initial collaboration in the San Francisco Jazz Collective in 2004. Their fascination with the music of Wayne Shorter is evident in Sound Prints<\/em> not only in their arrangements of two of Shorter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best-known compositions, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Juju,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but also in original pieces by the co-leaders. Bluesy, riff-like repeats in Douglas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ups and Downs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d constitute one example of Shorter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence. Two others are Lovano\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reflective \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Full Moon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with its entwining horn lines, and the skittering energies in his short \u00e2\u20ac\u0153High Noon,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a track whose solos would be welcome at greater length. Douglas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Libra\u00e2\u20ac\u009d opens with the harmonic riches of Lawrence Field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piano chorus. Douglas and Lovano achieve an album high point in their rich unison ensemble in that piece. Bassist Linda Han Oh and drummer Joey Baron round out the quintet. They and Fields constitute a tight rhythm section, abetted in Lovano\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Full Sun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Baron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stick work and joyous cymbal splashes, Douglas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rising swoops of high notes and Linda Oh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crisply intoned bass solo.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/81WpaV-LuQL._SX522_-e1524453968960.jpg\")
playlist includes two of his pieces, including the celebrated \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Southern Nights.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It also has his piano performances of compositions by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Fats Waller, Earl Hines and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dperhaps to the surprise of some listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBill Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Waltz For Debby.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Toussaint\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appreciation ran a wide gamut. Sidemen here can be surprising, among them guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Charles Lloyd and lap steel guitarist Greg Leisz. On 19th Century New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Danza,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Amy Shulman is at the harp. In his playing, Toussaint gives his chords a flow akin to running water. He sings one song, Paul Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1973 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153American Tune.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It remains as moving as when Simon did it.<\/p>\n
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Sulieman (1923-2002) was a distinctive early bebop trumpet player. His experience as a young man included McKinney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cotton Pickers, the Earl Hines big band, Sid Catlett and Cab Calloway. His range and flexibility allowed him later to be featured with Thelonious Monk, the Kenny Clarke\/Francy Boland band and Gerry Mulligan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Concert Band. Sulieman was notable for his fluency, a kind of edgy lyricism, and the cavernous sound he achieved with a cup mute. This double CD album was recorded in Algeria at a Tangiers radio station and in a New York City studio. It features the little-recognized pianist Oscar Dennard, bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Buster Smith. Dennard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harmonic gift triumphs over a piano that it would be kind to call adequate, but his solos are so interesting that the unfortunate instrument barely matters. Sulieman and company are particularly incisive in Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Visa.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This is a good way for anyone unfamiliar with Sulieman to learn what he was all about.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/51KEuQ0NH1L-e1524454502228.jpg\")
composer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his longtime bass-playing associate Jeff Johnson is. The three pieces that Johnson contributed to Cubist<\/em> leave no doubt about his writing ability. The title tune plus \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kiwi,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Artists\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Scene West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d give Galper, Johnson and drummer John Bishop plenty of challenging material. They make the most of it. Galper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s post-bop credentials with Cannonball Adderly, Chet Baker and Phil Woods, among others, are part of his solid history. A few years ago he began to explore the challenges and charms of time-play, rubato, bypassing strict tempo\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u009dstealing time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the Italians sometimes put it. The approach requires that all hands feel the time or non-time at the same intensity, with the same flexibility. Galper, Johnson, Bishop and tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi feel it together. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Scene West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is thirteen minutes of slowly building intensity capped by a bear-growling Johnson bass solo. Galper rounds out the album with compatible pieces not written by Johnson; Miles Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Solar,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Johnny Carisi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Israel,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a relaxed Ellington \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In A Sentimental Mood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with another superb Johnson solo and laid-back, adventurous Bergonzi, and Galper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Scufflin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which has stretches of Bishop in strict time that is not entirely unwelcome.<\/p>\n