Here are the tunes picked out for adding to the Jazz 88 Music library this week by Assistant Music Director for Jazz 88
Chad Fox (sitting in for our esteemed director and traveler Joe Kocherhans). We will be debuting as many as we can on
The New Jazz Thing, Monday, November 14, 2011.
GREG ABATE - "HORACE IS HERE" - (Straight-ahead tribute album to Horace that consists of all standards, re-
harmonized with new/fresh arrangements).
RAY CHARLES (
FB,
@RayCharles_TM ) - "SINGULAR GENIUS / THE COMPLETE ABC RECORDINGS" – (No description really
needed, but as the title implies, this is a compilation of hits and B-sides during this prolific period, 1960-1972).
Blogcritics.com (Greg Barbrick): While preparing to review the new Ray Charles box set,
Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles,
I had a look at what Dave Marsh had to say about Charles in 1978. In
essence, his opinion was that Ray had committed virtual artistic suicide
by leaving Atlantic Records for ABC-Paramount in 1959.
Wow. Maybe the guy was suffering from some form of rock-crit
inferiority complex or something, because nothing could be further from
the truth. The set contains 106 tracks, laid out over the course of five
CDs, and presents a pretty convincing case that Ray’s time with
ABC-Paramount Records was one of the strongest and most productive
associations of his career.
TED CLOUSER (
@ToddClouser,
FB)- "A LOVE ELECTRIC" – Contemporary guitarist, doing an edgy mix of all originals, many cuts
for nights/evenings, but some accessible for AM and afternoons; read the notes).
AllAboutJAzz.com (Chris May): Musicians and painters from the US have long since been relocating to
Mexico, hoping to deepen their art through immersion in a slower pace of
life. Guitarist Todd Clouser is a recent emigré, who moved south in
2006.
A Love Electric is his third post-relocation album. It catches
him in transformation from a straight ahead rock player to one embracing
jazz—specifically, hard bop and the Rhodes-spiked crossover of pianist
Herbie Hancock and trumpeter
Miles Davis' early 1970s bands—and old-school rhythm & blues.
EVAN COBB (
@EvanCobbJazz, - "FALLING UP" – (Nashville-based saxophonist, featuring a set of eight original straight-ahead
tunes in a quintet setting; debut release).
AMIR ELSAFFAR (
@AmirElSaffar,
FB) - "INANA" – (Trumpeter-led outing, doing all progressive originals with influences of Middle
Eastern music. Follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2007 release, Two Rivers; recently added to the progressive
drawer. Check it out as well).
AllAboutJazz.com (Troy Collins): Named after the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of carnal love and warfare,
Inana
blends the ceremonial intensity of maqam with the polyphonic melodies,
contrapuntal harmonies and syncopated polyrhythms associated with
sophisticated jazz structures. More fully realized than many similar
ethnic fusions, ElSaffar's incorporation of maqam's microtones, flexible
pitches and meter-less bar lines yields a highly personalized language
that reaches well beyond the confines of Western pedagogy for
inspiration. Gracefully poised between two worlds,
Inana builds upon
ElSaffar's previous accomplishments, establishing an impressive
precedent for the creative possibilities of a new global jazz aesthetic.
DELFEAYO MARSALIS (
@Delfeayo,
FB) - "SWEET THUNDER" – (Acclaimed trombonist, backed by a variety of all-star
personnel, streamlining Ellington & Strayhorn’s original charts from the 1957 theatrical production of Such Sweet
Thunder.)
AllAboutJazz.com (Edward Blanco):
Acclaimed trombonist and member of the first family of jazz, Delfeayo Marsalis launches Sweet Thunder: Duke & Shak,
an original theatrical jazz production culled from live performances in
thirty-six locations across the country. The play was born from
Marsalis' affinity for the music of Duke Ellington and the poetry of Shakespeare: first brought to the musical stage in the 1957 production of Such Sweet Thunder at the Shakespeare Festival I Stratford, Canada. Both Ellington and Billy Strayhorn were invited to compose music in tribute to The Bard, and came up with 15 compositions for that date.
Sweet Thunder
streamlines Ellington and Strayhorn's original charts into a
12-movement suite, bringing an all-star list of players, including
brothers
Branford and
Jason. for the recording.
CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE (
@McBridesWorld,
FB)- "CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRISTIAN" – (Straight-ahead release with each cut
featuring jazz greats and others, e.g., Corea, Hargrove, Ron Blake, Regina Carter, Dr. Billy Taylor, and oh yes,
an appearance by Sting. Mix of originals & other jazz tunes. Contains 3 vocal tracks).
LATimes Blog (Chris Barton): Bassist/bandleader Christian McBride isn't a guy who likes sitting
still. The L.A. Phil's Creative Chair for Jazz from 2006 to 2010, the
39-year-old McBride has recently toured with the jazz-fusion super-group
Five Peace Band
as well as his throwback acoustic ensemble Kind of Brown, which
released a sharp debut in 2009. This year marks another active one for
McBride with September's rambunctious big-band album "The Good Feeling"
and this month's "Conversations With Christian," a collection of duets
that rose out of a 2009 podcast series of the same name.
JACQUI NAYLOR - "LUCKY GIRL" - (Vocalist/songwriter in a quartet setting, doing a mix of jazz tunes).
GrooveNotes.com:
Fans pick the songs for the album
Jacqui hosted a gathering of about ninety people where she performed
twenty-five songs and let the listeners rate them on a scale of 1 to 5.
Without exception, the top fifteen rated songs did become the cuts
selected for the new album. Jacqui said that there was a little bit of
nervousness in letting her fans choose the songs, but when it was all
said and done, the fans made excellent choices.
“I think that a lot of the time fans are pretty much
right on. At least mine. I feel like they know me. And in this
particular case I wanted them to really know my heart in this album, and
I think that comes through.”
“Acoustic smashing” continues
Jacqui Naylor made famous what she defined as “acoustic smashing,” or
taking a jazz tune and a rock tune, and singing one while the band
plays the other in a seamless fashion. On this album, Jacqui smashes Surrey with the Fringe on Top with George Benson’s Breezin.
THE
DANIEL ROSENBOOM SEPTET (
FB) - "FALLEN ANGELS" – (Progressive release, composed and arranged by
this trumpeter. Some cuts day friendly).
JazzCorner.com: The Los Angeles that Daniel Rosenboom illustrates on his latest album,
Fallen Angeles,
is a ghost. They're portraits in spectral black and white, a collection
of film noir images that unreel with barely contained vigor and
explosive imagination.
THE
DAVE SHANK QUINTET - "SOUNDPROOF" – (Vibraphonist, known for his fusion style play, leads a
quintet that showcases ten new compositions; all straight-ahead).
Something Else!: The project also includes pianist Barry Miles and drummer Terry
Silverlight, a pair who first worked together on Miles’ 1971 fusion
delight
White Heat. Bassist John Patitucci, a longtime member of
Wayne Shorter’s Quartet and former member of Chich Corea’s Elektric and
Akoustic bands, was part of the same LA jazz scene with Shank in the
late 1980s and early ’90s, but this album is the first time the two have
worked together.
RANI SINGAM (
FB)- "WITH A SONG IN MY HEART" – (Singapor’s vocalist sensation in Asia with her debut release,
(now out of print), on the JazzNote imprint).
RANI SINGAM first started
creating a stir in the Singapore jazz scene in the year 2000 when she
started doing performances at corporate parties and community concerts.
In 2002, a few prominent Singaporean and visiting American musicians
were sitting in the Blue Note in Singapore and one of the musicians put
on demo CD of Rani without telling the other who it was. One of the
musicians said "hey...this sounds like an early Billie Holliday
recording, except that the sound quality is too clear to be from that
era." It was then revealed that the recording was by Rani Singam. All
present were extremely impressed and they asked someone who knew her to
ask her to come down to the Blue Note and perform that very night as a
guest!
WADADA LEO SMITH'S ORGANIC - "HEARTS REFLECTIONS" – (2 disc set featuring one of Smith’s many
working bands “Organic”, a fourteen-piece group marked by four guitarist. Sound can be described as part
fusion and part jazz-rock orchestra).
AllAboutJazz.com (Mark Carroto): Organic, one of Smith's numerous working bands, is a continuation of his Yo Miiles! project with guitarist
Henry Kaiser, the jazz/rock love child of
Miles Davis' electric era. Organic was first recorded as the second disc on Smith's
Spiritual Dimensions
(Cuneiform, 2009), and is positioned to take Yo Miles! one step beyond
with an electric sound that begins with the blues and funk, then evolves
into modern composition. Smith also updates the Milesian electric sound with two laptop computer artists,
TYSHAWN SOREY (
FB) - "OBLIQUE - 1" – (Progressive session, led by this drummer/composer, doing all originals.
First drummer to release a record as leader on the PI label).
TRIO THIS - "THAT" – (Collaborative project featuring a traditional mix of originals and re-examinations of works
by Wayne Shorter, Henry Mancini and Les McCann. Note; an earlier 2010 release).
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