John Alvey: Loft Glow

  Drummer John Alvey grew up with a musical father, pianist Michael Alvey, who encouraged his son in many ways, including finding him a first-rate drum teacher and exposing him to a lot of recorded jazz. Eventually, father and son played together for seven years in a trio that had a steady gig in his home town of Nashville. Loft Glow, John Alvey’s first album as a leader, has been a long time coming. He’s performed with jazz players like Brian Lynch, Greg Tardy, and Joel Frahm, whose warm tenor sax is a welcome presence here. Alvey’s key influence, perhaps surprisingly for a drummer, is saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, who turned 95 this past January. The well-known and much loved Moanin’ album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was, he says, his first exposure to hard bop, and he couldn’t stop listening to it. Loft Glow is a winning effort, with music that swings from start to finish. Alvey, working closely with trombonist Roland Barber, selected a good batch of tunes, including his own Azure, which leads off the set in high style. The band, with Alvey and Barber joined by alto saxophonist Jovan Quallo, tenorman Joel Frahm, the dynamic Matt Endahl on piano, and bassist Jacob Jezioro is impressive from the start. They maintain their appealing sound throughout the varied program, which makes listening to the entire album at once a genuine pleasure. In addition to Alvey’s lead-off track, there are two other pieces by band members. Trombonist Barber contributes the gentle Winslow Nocturne, while Quallo offers his quietly grooving June 23. John Stubblefield’s Baby Man, a favorite of Mary Lou Williams, is performed with an appropriately bluesy and down-home feel, courtesy of Endahl’s deft pianism and Alvey’s relaxed beat. Barber’s old-fashioned trombone solo is a nice touch. Of course, the set includes a piece by Golson. From his many compositions, Alvey chose Terminal 1, the title track of a 2004 CD for Concord. It’s a lovely tune, imbued with Golson’s trademark lyricism, and a rollicking Frahm makes the most of it. Alvey gets a chance to shine as well, with a tasty drum solo that moves the music right along. The set ends with a soulful canter through Ron Carter’s Blues For D.P., which first appeared on Parfait (Milestone) in 1980. Loft Glow is an excellent debut release, well worth checking out.

Jazz Music City; Roland Barber (tbn) Jovan Quallo (as on 2,3,5,6) Joel Frahm (ts on 1,2,4-6) Matt Endahl (p) Jacob Jezioro (b) John Alvey (d); Nashville, TN, August 15, 2022 (2,3,5) or July 14, 2023 (1,4,6); 1.Azure/ 2.Winslow Nocturne/ 3.Baby Man/ 4.Terminal 1/ 5.June 23/ 6.Blues for D.P.; 45:49. johnalveymusic.com

Travis Reuter: Quintet Music

  Without a drummer as adept as Tyshawn Sorey to negotiate its fractured rhythms, guitarist Travis Reuter’s Quintet Music would not have been nearly as exciting and enjoyable as it turned out to be. Enlisting Sorey, along with tenor saxophonist Mark Shim, vibraphonist Peter Schlamb, and bassist Harish Raghavan, gives Reuter plenty of choices in his arrangements. Sometimes Shim and Reuter are blazing up front over the vibes, bass, and drums rhythm team. At other points, like when Schlamb is laying down a furious vibes solo on #13 F34, the saxophonist seems to act as part of the rhythm section. There’s a lot going on all the time in Reuter’s music, and it can seem a trifle nervous at times. That’s only one reason to be glad for the three interludes, short features for Reuter, Shim, and Schlamb. They aren’t devoted to unaccompanied solos. Instead, each piece is focused on an individual instrumental voice as an oasis of relief in the midst of the more complex pieces. Of the longer tracks, I’m especially fond of Fast Louis, which starts out with an excitable guitar line from Reuter and deeply engaged responses from Sorey. The entrance of Shim and Schlamb, at around the two-minute mark, ups the ante considerably. Reuter’s wild guitar solo towards the end of #9 Low/High 1 is another exciting high point in the program. #15 and Carrico Real deliver a slam-bang finish to Quintet Music. I, for one, am sorely tempted to take a couple of deep breaths, and start back at the beginning. Highly recommended! 

Self-produced (digital only); Mark Shim (ts) Peter Schlamb (vib) Travis Reuter (g) Harish Raghavan (ac b) Tyshawn Sorey (d); Brooklyn, NY, April 21-23, 2024, additional recording Bern, Switzerland, October 10, 2022; Same Song/ #13 F34/ Interlude 1 (Reuter)/ #8 D@z/ Fast Louis/ Interlude 1 (Shim)/ #9 Low/High 1/ Interlude 1 (Schlamb)/ #15/ Carrico Real; 45:17. www.travisreuter.com

Bobby Hutcherson: Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970

  Bob Blumenthal, in his typically comprehensive and thought-provoking style, begins his liner notes to the Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970 by writing that “every boxed set tells a story ...” In fact, this marvelous collection of Hutcherson albums tells more than one story. There’s the coming-of-age tale that Blumenthal identifies, but there at least two other stories lurking in this set. One is the ongoing evolution of the storied Blue Note label, as the music slowly changed over the course of the Sixties into more commercial directions. A third and more personal story is the close relationship between Hutcherson and Michael Cuscuna, late co-founder of Mosaic Records who passed away in April 2024. He ends a brief remembrance of Hutcherson in the booklet by writing that “It was an honor to spend chunks of my life with Bobby and [his widow] Rosemary.” It is altogether fitting that Cuscuna’s final project for Mosaic should be this Hutcherson collection. For dedicated jazz fans who have enjoyed Mosaic’s endeavors since their first release in 1983, it’s been an honor and a distinct pleasure to spend so much time with all the music that they’ve unearthed over the decades.

After arriving in New York in early 1963 with a band led by trombonist Al Grey, Hutcherson’s vibraphone playing came to the attention of another trombonist, Grachan Moncur III. Moncur, a much more exploratory musician than Al Grey, was in the process of forming an ensemble with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. He thought Hutcherson would fit in well, which led to the vibraphonist’s first Blue Note appearance, on McLean’s One Step Beyond, recorded on April 30, 1963. Further sideman appearances on Blue Note and other labels came along throughout the year, and at the end of December, 1963, his first session as leader. The Kicker went unreleased at the time, finally seeing light of day in 1999. By the time the label shut its doors in 1979, only Hutcherson and Horace Silver still remained from the Fifties and Sixties. This package collects eleven albums, fitting them on seven CDs. Six of these (Dialogue, Components, Happenings, Stick-Up!, Total Eclipse, and San Francisco) were issued contemporaneously, while five more sessions (The Kicker, Spiral, Patterns, Medina, and Oblique) came out much later, in various vault issue programs headed by none other than Michael Cuscuna. These CDs have been sequenced in chronological order, so The Kicker comes first. Along the way, we get to hear such notables as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, reedmen Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, James Spaulding, and the perpetually underrated Harold Land, and pianists Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock (1965-67), and Stanley Cowell (1968-69). On bass, the players include such luminaries as Richard Davis, Bob Cranshaw, Ron Carter, Reggie Workman, and Reggie Johnson. Joe Chambers is on drums for all but three of the dates. In typical Mosaic fashion, there are seven previously unissued alternates, and one previously unissued Stanley Cowell composition, Photon in a Paper World, recorded for the 1968 Medina album. There are three dozen atmospheric black and white photos taken by Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff. Sound, as always, is impeccable, with the latest mastering techniques brought to bear via high-resolution transfers of the original analog tapes. 

Bobby Hutcherson was a wonderfully inventive and hard-swinging performer, particularly on marimba, a fine composer, and a genuine catalyst for group interaction. A previous Mosaic Select 3-CD set collected Hutcherson’s final five Blue Note albums from 1974-77. Classic Blue Note Sessions completes the picture of one of the most significant and influential vibraphonists of his era. Totally recommended. 

Mosaic MD7-278 (limited edition of 5,000 sets, available here; Disc 1 (74:48): The Kicker, Dialogue. Disc 2 (71:52): Dialogue concluded, Components. Disc 3 (69:51): Happenings. Disc 4 (71:06): Stick-Up!. Oblique. Disc 5 (75:32): Oblique concluded, Patterns. Disc 6 (78:56): Total Eclipse, Spiral, Medina. Disc 7 (78:00): Medina concluded, San Francisco. Complete discographical details available here