2011

ELLIS MARSALIS – “A NEW ORLEANS CHRISTMAS CAROL” (Pianist, leeding a straight-
ahead session, with some vocal tracks).

MARCUS ROBERTS – “CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead piano trio).

TRI-FI – “TRI-FI CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead piano trio).

CHRIS BAUER – “IN A YULETIDE GROOVE” (Harmonica player, leading a straight-ahead
session).

BEANTOWN SWING ORCHESTRA – “A BEANTOWN CHRISTMAS” (Swinging, big band
vocal versions).

VARIOUS ARTISTS – “CHRISTMAS: I SAW THREE SHIPS” (Singers from New Orleans,
with straight-ahead versions).

CHRIS STANDRING & KATHRIN SHORR – “SEND ME SOME SNOW” (Straight-ahead
vocal album, doing all originals).

DIANE VAN DUERZEN & LISA OTEY – “MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE” (Female
vocal duo, doing straight-ahead jazz vocals).
others, with some vocal tracks).

TONY BENNETT – “THE CLASSIC CHRISTMAS ALBUM” (As the title implies, all your
holiday favorites performed by legendary crooner).

CYNTHIA KAAY BENNETT – “THAT’S THE SPIRIT” (Female vocalist, doing classic
Holiday tunes, and some obscure ones, as well).

HARRY CONNICK, JR. – “THE HAPPY ELF” (Mostly piano trio recording, doing all Harry’s
originals).

CHRIS DAVS – “THIS CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead, trumpet-led quartet, doing Holiday
classics).

NICOLE HENRY – “Female vocalist, with a live recording of Holiday favorites).

DAVID IAN – “VINTAGE CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead piano-led group, with some vocal
tracks).

JILLAINE – “JAZZY CHRISTMAS TO YOU” (Female vocalist, with a mix of classics and
obscure tunes).

BRADLEY LEIGHTON – “HOLIDAY OF LIGHTS” (Latin and contemporary versions of the
Classics).

ELLIS MARSALIS – “A NEW ORLEANS CHRISTMAS CAROL” (Pianist, leeding a straight-
ahead session, with some vocal tracks).

MARCUS ROBERTS – “CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead piano trio).

TRI-FI – “TRI-FI CHRISTMAS” (Straight-ahead piano trio).

CHRIS BAUER – “IN A YULETIDE GROOVE” (Harmonica player, leading a straight-ahead
session).

BEANTOWN SWING ORCHESTRA – “A BEANTOWN CHRISTMAS” (Swinging, big band
vocal versions).

Happy Holiday! We've added a LOT of new holiday music for 2011 and we are going to play it all this season!!! Listen to The New Jazz Thing, Monday, December 12, 2011 6-8PM PT and we'll get into that, Jazz Week Jazz Charts and more!

VARIOUS ARTISTS – “CHRISTMAS: I SAW THREE SHIPS” (Singers from New Orleans,
with straight-ahead versions).

CHRIS STANDRING & KATHRIN SHORR – “SEND ME SOME SNOW” (Straight-ahead
vocal album, doing all originals).

DIANE VAN DUERZEN & LISA OTEY – “MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE” (Female
vocal duo, doing straight-ahead jazz vocals).

AllAboutJazz.com (Ian Patterson): Jazz-fusion—for want of a better term—is alive and kicking in Asia, as this excellent recording demonstrates. So far, only Asian audiences have been fortunate to see this incendiary quartet on tour. Hopefully, it will go into the studio with some original material soon and launch itself beyond Asia.

CORINA BARTRA – “CIELO SANDUNGUERO” (Female vocalist, backed by a big band, doing Latin

tunes, and Latin versions of other tunes).

PowerderFinger Promotions: Corina Bartra from Peru. Corina Bartra is an original. When she proposed to blend jazz with Afro-Peruvian & Creole music from Peru, her sound was unprecedented. She has pioneered a ground-breaking fusion of jazz and Afro Latin music with her releases: Corina Bartra Quartet, Son Zumbon, Travelog, and Bambu Sun, where for the first time one could hear the incorporation of the cajon (Peruvian percussive box) and the festejo groove blended with jazz. Corina was the first vocalist to blend Afro-Peruvian criolla music from Peru with Jazz.

TONY BENNETT – “DUETS II” (Legendary vocalist, with a very eclectic mix of duet partners, singing

the Great American Songbook).

Pop & Hiss (LA Times Music Blog, Mikael Wood): Some of these May-December cuts sound great, particularly Bennett and Gaga’s “The Lady Is a Tramp,” in which he can’t stifle his amusement with her drama-kid shtick. (“I love to rowboat with you and your wife in Central Park Lake,” Gaga ad-libs pricelessly.) 

DAVID BUDWAY – “A NEW KISS” (Pianist, leading a very edgy session, with mostly originals and a

couple of standards).

Critical Jazz: A thoroughly engaging and at times electrifying performance by one of the most gifted if not sadly overlooked pianists of our time. A New Kiss makes it easy to understand how such a dynamic talent caught the ear of Liza Minnelli with Budway going to perform with such jazz legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass and Jimmy Heath.

TITO CARRILLO – “OPENING STATEMENT” (Trumpeter, leading a variety of band configurations,

doing mostly straight-ahead originals).

Origin Records: A confluence of the post-bop trumpet legacy of Miles, Hubbard, & Shaw, along with the complexities of Cuban rhythms, lyrical ballad phrasing, and boundary-breaking free exploration, "Opening Statement" is a powerful recording by one of the more prominent fixtures on the vibrant Chicago jazz scene of the past 15 years. Though having appeared on over 20 CDs alongside luminaries such as Willie Pickens, Chuchito Valdes, and even pop icon Phil Collins, this project marks trumpeter Carrillo's first recording as a leader, revealing a singular modern trumpeter with an expressive and original compositional voice. 

EDDIE DANIELS/ROGER KELLAWAY – “LIVE AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS” (Clarinet/piano

duet, doing mostly standards).

Audiophile Audition: Both of these highly-respected performers are equally at home in the classical or jazz genres and most anything else. Together and separately they already account for a half dozen releases on the IPO label. And this is actually a sequel to their earlier IPO duo album, A Duet of One. This is not one of those historical concerts from the Library of Congress issued by Bridge, but a new recording made February 25, 2010 in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium.

“RYAN DAVIDSON TRIO” – (Progressive Texas Swing, if you will).

Audiophile Audition (Robbie Gerson): As a member of the six-time Grammy-nominated One O’clock Band Lab Band, Ryan Davidson shared the stage with jazz artists like Dave Brubeck, James Carter, Eddie Gomez and George Garzone. All of this was accomplished as a student at the University of North Texas, where he earned a degree as a Master of Music in Jazz Studies. Within the community of country music, he has done sessions with dozens of acts. His project with the One O’clock Lab Band (Lab ’09) received two Grammynominations. The alchemy of country and jazz is complex, but interesting.

DOUG EBERT – “POOR DOG” (Bassist, leading a quartet, doing all straight-ahead originals).

McCORMACK & YARDE DUO – “PLACES AND OTHER SPACES” (Sax/piano duet, doing all

originals, but one).

The Guardian (John Fordham): When the conversation between pianist Andrew McCormack and saxist/composer Jason Yarde began on CD two years ago, the pair showed they could read and expand each other's thoughts with an impulsive empathy. The My Duo album's followup finds Yarde concentrating on soprano sax a little less, now applying a wider tonal range to a similar repertoire of seductively hooky, Keith Jarrett-like piano vamps embroidered by adventurous sax lines, swoony lyricism and minimalist sax-pattern whirlings reminiscent of Portico Quartet. 

SAM PANNUNZIO TRIO – “GOIN’ HOME” (Straight-ahead piano trio, doing all originals, but one).

ENRICO RAVA QUINTET – “TRIBE” (Trumpeter, leading a quintet/sextet, doing low-key, but edgy

tracks).

PopMatters.com (George de Stefano): Trumpeter Enrico Rava, born in Trieste in 1939 and raised in Torino, has had a distinguished and varied career spanning five decades. He has played on nearly 100 recordings and as a leader on 40. Rava commands virtually the entire history of jazz, from classic New Orleans styles – he started out as a Kid Ory-influenced trombonist – to bebop to avant-garde, “free” playing. Rava’s career began in the early 1960s, as a sideman with Leandro “Gato” Barbieri, the Argentine saxophonist of Italian roots. Later in the decade, Rava recorded and performed with many of the leading exponents of the free jazz movement. 

MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO – “NEW ORLEANS MEETS HARLEM” (Pianist, leading a straight-ahead

trio, with a mix of tunes from composer heralding from both cities). 2009 Release

About.com (Jacob Teichroew): 

GEORGE SCHULLER’S CIRCLE WIDE – “LIKE BEFORE, SOMEWHAT AFTER” (Drummer-led

quintet/sextet, with an edgy mix of Keith Jarrett tunes and originals).

AllAboutJazz.com ( 

KARLA CORNEJO VILLAVICENCIO

): 2008 Release. It might seem like adulation of the highest order to state that by the end of the piece, heart rates will quicken and pupils will dilate, but why not praise what is praiseworthy? Increased heart rate is nothing but a physical symptom of something called love and falling in love with Like Before, Somewhat After is one physical phenomenon that even the left-brained among us can understand with ease.

SPERO (FB)– “ACOUSTIC” (Piano trio, doing mostly straight-ahead originals).

TRI-FI (FB)– “THREE” (Straight-ahead piano trio, doing all band originals).

CHRIS WEST – “TRILOGY 3” (Very edgy collection of traditional and contemporary originals).

Examiner.com: Saxophonist Chris West has released "The Surprise Trilogy" a 3 CD set of all original material, featuring some of Nashville's finest including Jeff Coffin, Don Aliquo, Rod McGaha, Derek Phillips, Pat Bergeson, Adam Agati, Greg Bryant, Charles Treadway and many others.

DEBORAH WINTERS – “LOVERS AFTER ALL” (Vocalist, backed by a big band, doing mostly the

Great American Songbook).

AllAboutJazz.com (Dan Bilawsky): On Lovers After All, the Bay Area-based vocalist establishes herself as a ballad singer with which to be reckoned. She can sing over swing with confidence ("Get Out Of Town") and sway to the subtle sounds of the bossa nova ("Haunted Heart"), but her ballad work eclipses all else. Her voice has depth and warmth that instantly soothes and seduces; her use of vibrato is rare and judicious, and her pacing, clarity and diction are perfectly suited to this particular style of song.

NOTE: THESE WILL BE THE LAST NEW RELEASES FOR THIS YEAR. NEW ADDS WILL

RESUME ON 1/9/12.

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).