Melissa Aldana: Filin

   

      Tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana showcases the romantic side of her art on the delightful Filin. Aldana has long wanted to make a ballad album, inspired by John Coltrane’s 1963 Ballads Lp. Talking about her ideas with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, he suggested investigating filin, a style of romantic songs that was popular in Cuba from the late ‘40s to the early ‘60s. Rubalcaba, who grew up among professional musicians in Cuba, not only made the suggestion, but was happy to play piano on the project, He also helped the Chilean-born Aldana navigate her way through the history of filin music, which ended up with a recording of eight selections by as many composers. With minimal arrangements by Rubalcaba, Aldana glides smoothly into the heart of these tender melodies. The impeccable rhythm team of Rubalcaba on piano, the invaluable Peter Washington on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums is warmly supportive of Aldana’s generally relaxed excursions. Adding to the intimate feeling of the recordings was the “old-fashioned” way the album was recorded, with everyone in the same room and without headphones. Cécile McLorin Salvant adds her distinctive vocals to a couple of tracks. While she sounds a trifle tentative singing this unfamiliar repertoire, her delivery reminds us that the songs all had vocals originally. Aldana, as is her usual practice, learned the lyrics as well as the music, so as to convey the correct intent. The overall effect is genuinely gorgeous, a soothing and calming thirty-nine minutes of music to be enjoyed again and again. 

Blue Note; Melissa Aldana (ts) Gonzalo Rubalcaba (p) Peter Washington (b) Kush Abadey (d)     Cécile McLorin Salvant (vocals on *); Mt. Vernon, NY, April 29–30, 2025; La Sentencia/ Dime Si Eres Tú/ No Te Empeñes Más*/ Imágenes/ Las Rosas No Hablan*/ Little Church/ Ocaso/ No Pidas Imposibles; 38:58. www.bluenote.com

Horace Silver Quintet: Silver In Seattle: Live At The Penthouse

     It may be hard to believe, but there was a time when live jazz was broadcast on the radio from clubs across the country. Zev Feldman, who has produced reissues for many labels over the last decade or so, has presided over the release of music by a number of prominent artists (like Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley, and Wynton Kelly with Wes Montgomery) recorded from the stage of Seattle’s Penthouse club. The latest to appear features a short-lived edition of the Horace Silver Quintet. Short-lived because the unit heard on Silver In Seattle: Live At The Penthouse has a front line of trumpeter Woody Shaw and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, who were in Silver’s group together only from the spring of 1965 until perhaps the first half of 1966. Drummer Roger Humphries was with Silver from mid-1964 until 1967, with various bassists joining him in the rhythm section. That role was often filled, as it is here, by Teddy Smith. But here’s the thing: if you are a fan of vintage hard bop, especially on the Blue Note label, you love Horace Silver’s music practically by definition, no matter who is on the bandstand. The five tunes here include Henderson’s The Kicker, the well-known Silver originals Song For My Father and The Cape Verdean Blues, which was first recorded a couple of months after the Seattle appearance. The quintet is excellent form on this pair of broadcasts, a week apart. That’s another relic of the past. Bands would frequently appear at the same club for a couple of weeks or even longer. This situation provided the musicians a chance to learn the room and make any necessary adjustments required, with the added benefit of staying in one city and keeping off the road for a spell. Jim Wilke of KING-FM hosted the broadcasts, and he wisely recorded many of them for fans to enjoy decades later. Silver’s blend of buoyant groove and memorable melodies will never go stale, and here’s another vault issue to prove it. Easily recommended. 

Blue Note; Woody Shaw (tpt) Joe Henderson (ts) Horace Silver (p) Teddy Smith (b) Roger Humphries (d); Seattle, WA, August 12 & 19*, 1965; The Kicker/ Song For My Father/ The Cape Verdean Blues/ Sayonara Blues*/ Band introductions*/ No Smokin'*; 53:45. www.bluenote.com

Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey: On View At The Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters

     The cast: guitarist Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey on drums, plus Bobby Timmons and Roland Hanna alternating on piano, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, and bassist Ben Tucker. The date and place: August 25, 1959 at the Five Spot Café, near the Bowery in lower Manhattan. The recording engineer: Rudy Van Gelder. What could go wrong? Nothing! For the original Lp, the producer’s biggest problem was likely to be what to include and what to leave out from the five sets of the evening. Now we have On View At The Five Spot Café: The Complete Masters, with six previously unissued tracks joining the original album and the three tracks that were added to an earlier CD reissue. While the music is great, The Complete Masters is a misnomer. According to Tom Lord’s online Jazz Discography, there were twenty-five pieces recorded that night. Hanna was on piano for sets one, three, and four, replaced by Timmons on the other two sets, with Tina Brooks playing only with Timmons on piano. For this collection, compilation producer Joe Harley has simply sequenced the original album followed by the CD bonus selection, and then added six more tracks after that, for a total of fourteen tracks. That leaves eleven performances unaccounted for. The notation “rejected” is appended to thirteen takes in the Jazz Discography, a few of which have now been issued. To a jazz nerd like me, it seems wrong to call this The Complete Masters when it’s really the Incomplete masters, without an explanation as to what’s missing. And why wasn’t the music put back in the original sequence, instead of the hodgepodge that’s been issued in the past? Even so, there’s nearly two hours of fine music at hand. And who could scoff at having more Tina Brooks to listen to, or to relax with an especially frisky Kenny Burrell with the mighty Art Blakey at the drums? Not me, that’s for sure. The booklet includes an essay by Syd Schwartz about the history of the Five Spot, his notes on the performances, and a revealing interview with Kenny Burrell. While I’m looking forward to the eventual release of the entire evening in its original sequence, I’m pretty happy listening to what’s here. 

Blue Note (2 CDs/3 Lps); Tina Brooks (ts on #) Kenny Burrell (g) Bobby Timmons or *Roland Hanna (p) Ben Tucker (b) Art Blakey (d); NYC, August 25, 1959; CD 1 (63:36): Birks’ Works#/ Hallelujah*/ Lady Be Good#/ Lover Man#/ 36-23-36/ Swingin’/ If You Could See Me Now*/ Beef Stew Blues*. CD 2 (51:22): The Next Time You See Me, Things Won’t Be the Same*/ The Take Off*/ Birks’ Works#/ Lady Be Good#/ Love Walked In/ 36-23-36 (The Theme)#. www.bluenote.com

McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson: Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs’

Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs’ documents a 1966 club date by the McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson quartet, with Henry Grimes on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The group played for only one week at Slugs’, on New York’s Lower East Side. DeJohnette, who turned 82 in August 2024, has stopped traveling, giving him time to go through his archives, where he found the tape of this gig. Pianist Tyner and tenor saxophone master Henderson recorded together for Blue Note on a number of occasions in the early Sixties, and they were well-acquainted with one another’s musical predilections. Bassist Grimes played with seemingly everyone on the scene before he suddenly vanished in 1970, only to be rediscovered in 2002. And DeJohnette was equally at home in the Bill Evans trio and the Miles Davis Quintet, among many other credits. This set was taped by Orville O’Brien, who is also credited on such high-profile releases of the period as Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda, Freddie Hubbard’s Night Of The Cookers, and Roy Brooks’ The Free Slave. The mix could use more piano sound, but given the quality of his other work, O’Brien was probably working under less than ideal conditions. No matter: the group is swinging hard from the first downbeat, roaring through a 26-minute version of Henderson’s In ‘N’ Out, the title track to a 1964 Blue Note album by a Henderson quintet that included Tyner. The ballad of the night, We’ll Be Together Again, slows things down, with Henderson expounding at length, Tyner playing a lovely solo, and Grimes and DeJohnette holding it all together. Taking Off is a lengthy minor blues improvisation, nearly a half hour long. It starts out pretty fast and stays that way. Henderson blows up a storm for half the length, as the rest of the band rolls and tumbles behind him. Tyner follows with his characteristic powerful attack. A potent drum solo and Grimes’ unflappable bass presence make this a memorable and exciting excursion in pure improvisation. Tyner’s The Believer follows, an early composition that was first recorded by John Coltrane for Prestige in 1958. Tyner never recorded it himself, which makes this passionate performance a true revelation. The set ends with a relatively brief foray into Henderson’s Isotope, first heard on his 1964 Blue Note album Inner Urge. That was a quartet session with Tyner at the piano, and this rendition is distinguished by the lively interplay between saxophone and piano. With liner notes by Nate Chinen, plus reminiscences and commentary by DeJohnette, Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Nasheet Waits, Terri Lyne Carrington and others, the booklet is the icing on the cake, but the overwhelming power of the music will make it tough to read and listen at the same time. Waits’ metaphor for the strength of this music is that it’s like running “a sprint for a couple of miles.” So when you sit down to listen to Forces Of Nature, be prepared to be both elated and exhausted. The mid-Sixties was a particularly dire time in jazz history, with rock and soul music in ascendance, but this quartet is working hard, thrilling the jazz die-hards in the small club, and now, decades later, thrilling the audience at home. Passionately recommended. 

Blue Note (2 CDs, 2 Lps, or digital); Joe Henderson (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Henry Grimes (b) Jack DeJohnette (d); NYC, 1966: Disc 1 (41:00): In ‘N’ Out/ We’ll Be Together Again. Disc 2 (45:28): Taking Off/ The Believer/ Isotope. www.bluenote.com

Freddie Hubbard: The Complete Blue Note & Impulse ‘60s Studio Sessions

  By their very nature, compilations of the recordings by a particular artist on one label tell just one part of the story of that era in a musician’s life. Mosaic Records has assembled a 7-CD boxed set of The Complete Blue Note & Impulse ‘60s Studio Sessions, with eight Blue Note titles and two Impulse recordings by the incomparable trumpet master Freddie Hubbard. Only the vagaries of corporate ownership allow the Blue Note and Impulse albums to be issued together, and it points up the problems of assembling a truly comprehensive view of Hubbard’s amazing odyssey in less than five years, from the time of Open Sesame, his initial Blue Note release recorded in June 1960, to February 1965, when he made his final album for the label, Blue Spirits. During that span, Hubbard did one live session for Blue Note (The Night Of The Cookers, with Lee Morgan), and appeared as a sideman on Blue Note sessions for Tina Brooks, Hank Mobley, Kenny Drew, Dexter Gordon, and Herbie Hancock. He also participated in sessions led by Ornette Coleman (Free Jazz), John Coltrane (Africa/Brass and Olé), Oliver Nelson (The Blues And The Abstract Truth), Curtis Fuller, Randy Weston (Uhuru Africa), J.J. Johnson, Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter and many others. As of late 1961, Hubbard became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, recording a batch of live and studio dates for Blue Note, and with a whole new book of tunes to learn. In fact, I could go on and on with his credits in this period when he performed on an astonishing number of critically acclaimed albums. All of these sessions, plenty of opportunities to perform in clubs and concerts, and a slew of memorable compositions (including Birdlike, Arietis, Lament For Booker, Thermo and Hub-tones) point to Hubbard’s powerful work ethic in this period, his ability to shine in any and all musical situations, and the obvious esteem in which he was held by other musicians. In his typically astute and insightful essay that graces the 20-page booklet, Bob Blumenthal writes of Hubbard’s “skill at sight-reading orchestral parts...,” but even that facet of Hubbard’s tool-box can’t account for the sheer volume of material he seemed to master in no time at all. It’s been said of Coleman Hawkins that he could arrive at the studio and be shown the lead sheet for a song he’d never played. He’d look it over, step up to the microphone and play it like he had written it. I suspect the same could be said of Hubbard. The albums presented here, in stellar sound and with all the bonus tracks that have been issued on CDs over the years, are an education by themselves. We can hear how the 22-year old leader of Open Sesame, featuring tenor saxist Tina Brooks and pianist McCoy Tyner, making his own Blue Note debut, grew quickly and steadily into one of the greatest trumpeters of the modern era. An immersion in The Complete Blue Note & Impulse ‘60s Studio Sessions will all by itself provide an intense look at this period of Hubbards’ career. If all of this great music provokes you into a more detailed exploration of Hubbard’s artistry in a myriad of contexts, you’ve got many, many hours of inspiring music to look forward to. Highest recommendation! 

Mosaic MD7-274; Disc 1 (72:17): (A) Open Sesame (6/19/60), (B) Goin’ Up (11/6/60)/ Disc 2 (72:16): Goin’ Up continued, ©) Hub Cap (4/9/61)/ Disc 3 (76:15): (D) Ready For Freddie (8/21/61), (E) The Artistry Of Freddie Hubbard (7/2/62)/ Disc 4 (59:02): (E) The Artistry Of Freddie Hubbard continued, (G) Here To Stay (12/27/62)/ Disc 5 (72:46): (F) Hub-Tones (7/2/62), (J) The Body And The Soul (5/2/63, small group session)/ Disc 6 (71:52): (H) The Body And The Soul (3/8/63, strings session), (I) The Body And The Soul (3/11/63, big band session), (K) Breaking Point (5/7/64)/ Disc 7 (62:02): (L) Blue Spirits (2/19/65, first session), (M) Blue Spirits (2/26/65, second session), (N) quintet session, 3/5/66, two tracks completed. All tracks recorded in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, except session (H), recorded in NYC. The Artistry Of Freddie Hubbard and The Body And The Soul originally on Impulse Records; the remainder on Blue Note Records. For complete discographical details, go here. Limited edition of 5,000 sets available directly from Mosaic at www.mosaicrecords.com

Elvin Jones: Revival: Live At Pookie’s Pub

  Drummer Elvin Jones was a true force of nature. One of the stupidest things I’ve ever done in my life was to leap out of my seat at Keystone Korner at the end of a set by the Jazz Machine in the late Seventies and shake the hand of Elvin Jones as he walked straight to the bar. I hadn’t reckoned with the sheer strength of the man right after he was done playing. I thought my hand would crumble into dust. A new Blue Note release, Revival: Live At Pookie’s Pub, is a potent reminder of the power and volcanic energy of Mr. Jones with just one tune: the opening 21-minute rendition of Keiko’s Birthday Song. After Joe Farrell on tenor and Billy Greene at the piano have their says, Elvin embarks on a fabulous long drum solo, one of the greatest displays of his poly-rhythmic and forceful style I’ve ever heard. The first track alone is a treasure, but there’s a whole lot more to enjoy on this compilation drawn from three nights at the small and obscure New York City venue. The origin of the tapes is a cool story, told by Bob Falesch, who met Jones one night while wandering into Pookie’s one night. While sitting a few feet away from the floor tom-tom, Falesch and Jones seemed to make some kind of unspoken connection. Falesch writes that “At the end of the set, he came right over, sat down next to me, and ordered another drink.” The pair proceeded to have a long chat, and after Falesch mentioned his job at Ampex Stereo Tapes, the drummer suggested coming back to the pub sometime to record the proceedings. Falesch took him up on his offer, and here we are, fifty-five years later and the music is finally out there. To put these performances into a key aspect of the historical context, it’s critical to note that John Coltrane had died earlier in the month, on July 17. Jones, of course, played in Coltrane’s group from 1960-early 1966, and ‘Trane’s death must have weighed heavily on him when these performances were recorded near the end of the month with Joe Farrell on tenor sax and flute, the obscure Billy Greene on piano, and Wilbur Little on bass. Revival is another Zev Feldman production, and he’s outdone himself for the documentation this time around. The centerpiece is a lengthy essay by Ashley Kahn on the background of Pookie’s Pub and the circumstances of Elvin Jones’ long residency there, from May 1967 through the end of the year. He also talked to musicians who dropped by to visit or sit in about their memories of the room and their feelings about Elvin Jones. Kahn’s long piece includes quotes about Elvin and the scene at Pookie’s from bassists Richard Davis and Gene Perla, saxophonist George Coleman, trumpeters Jimmy Owens and Randy Brecker and drummer Jimmy Madison. In his own series of interviews, Feldman has talked to drummers Alvin Queen and Michael Shrieve, who tells a great story about meeting Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison in the Coltrane quartet by crashing through a skylight into their dressing room. There are also reminiscences by Elvin Jones alums Perla, Pat LaBarbera and Dave Liebman, as well as pianist Richie Beirach, who lived across the street from Pookie’s. Every story I’ve ever heard, and the recollections of these musicians, paints a picture of a caring and intelligent man who just happened to be one of the greatest drummers in jazz history. Give a listen to Revival: Live At Pookie’s Pub and you’ll surely agree. Absolutely recommended. 

Blue Note (cd, vinyl); Joe Farrell (ts, fl) Billy Greene or Larry Young* (p) Wilbur Little (b) Elvin Jones (d); NYC, July 28-30, 1967; Disc 1 (75:05): Keiko’s Birthday March/ Gingerbread Boy*/ 13 Avenue B/ My Funny Valentine/ M.E. Disc 2 (58:26): On the Trail/ Softly as in a Morning Sunrise/ Raunchy Rita/ Oleo. www.bluenote.com

Julian Lage: Squint

  With Squint, his debut as a leader for Blue Note Records, guitarist Julian Lage completes an unusual musical relay. It goes like this: towards the end of the 1950's, saxophonist Boots Randolph prevailed upon young vibraphonist Gary Burton to move to Nashville, where he made his earliest recordings with Randolph, guitarist Hank Garland, and pianist Floyd Cramer. That sojourn lasted for a couple of years, until Burton relocated to New York. The first Gary Burton quartet with Larry Coryell on guitar recorded Duster in 1967. Coryell was succeeded by, among others, Jerry Hahn, Mick Goodrick, and Pat Metheny in various Burton units over the years. In 2003, Burton introduced his new band, bringing Julian Lage to immediate prominence. Lage went on to record four CDs with Burton, with his own first record as a leader for EmArcy in 2009. Now Lage himself has completed the circle by moving to Nashville, where he recorded Squint at home and at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios. Anyone who’s heard any of the Burton titles or Lage’s collaborations with fellow guitarist Nels Cline (Room, 2014; and Currents, Constellations, 2018) knows that Lage is a consistently exciting and inventive player. His trio of the last few years featuring Jorge Roeder on bass and Dave King on drums has attained a beautifully poised sound and they more than do justice to Lage’s tuneful originals. The opening Etude is a relaxing solo piece, welcoming us to the session. Eight Lage compositions by the trio are on the program, along with Johnny Mercer’s Emily, popular with improvisers since its debut in 1964, and the more obscure Call of the Canyon, by Billy Hill, sung first by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey in 1940 and later by Gene Autry in a 1942 film of the same name. Highlights include the perky groove of Saint Rose, the sweetly delicate treatment of Emily, the trenchant interplay of the trio on the up-tempo Familiar Flower, and the utterly relaxed Short Form. Squint is happily recommended. 

Blue Note B08Y4H43VJ; Julian Lage (el g) Jorge Roeder (b) Dave King (d); Nashville, TN, August 15-19, 2020; Etude (solo guitar)/ Boo's Blues/ Squint/ Saint Rose/ Emily/ Familiar Flower/ Day and Age/ Quiet Like a Fuse/ Short Form/ Twilight Surfer/ Call Of The Canyon; 45:32. www.bluenote.com

Bill Frisell: Valentine

  Building on his unusually tight rapport with bassist Thomas Morgan, best displayed on a pair of duet ECM releases (Small Town and Epistrophy), guitarist Bill Frisell unveils a new trio with Morgan and the versatile drummer Rudy Royston. Frisell and Royston first played together on a 1996 Ron Miles session, and Royston has joined the guitarist on a number of projects over the years, sometimes with Morgan also on board. After a couple of years on the road, Valentine is their first release as a trio, and it’s a winner. The lead off track, Boubacar Traore’s Baba Drame, is a longtime favorite of Frisell’s. The tune first appeared on his 2003 album The Intercontinentals, was on McCoy Tyner’s Guitars set with Frisell as guest, and was revisited on Frisell’s 2007 live album History, Mystery. Here it’s an occasion for intricate interplay. That’s pretty much the vibe all the way through this set. Frisell composed most of the music for this outing, relying on simple structures, and using the ingenuity of his bandmates to bring them to life. Particularly fine is the title track with its vaguely boppish melody and a jazzy arrangement that includes leaves space for a beautifully contoured bass solo and a series of solos traded by Frisell and Royston. Another deep pleasure is the somber and atmospheric Levees, originally composed for a film soundtrack and lovingly repurposed by the trio. Then there’s their reinvention of Billy Strayhorn’s timelessly beautiful A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, taken at just the right tempo to revel in the song’s melodic and harmonic contours. Morgan’s lovely solo is shadowed by gentle chords from Frisell and tender brush work by Royston. You wouldn’t think that the title song of the 1934 Western Wagon Wheels, co-written by Billy Hill and Peter DeRose would make a decent vehicle for improvisation, but it was a favorite of the Tommy Dorsey big band in the Forties, then famously recorded by Sonny Rollins for his 1957 Way Out West album. The version here is led off by Morgan with a straight-forward reading of the melody. Shimmering guitar by Frisell and a happy loping tempo by an understated Royston complete the picture. Frisell’s Aunt Mary is curious, with two minutes of gentle melody followed by a minute of unclassifiable electronic sound. Frisell has been playing What the World Needs Now is Love for years in concert settings, but this is the first time he’s recorded it. The Burt Bacharach and Hal David song was a massive hit for Jackie DeShannon in 1965. It’s clear from the trio’s approach to the song that David’s lyrics and message are as important as Bacharach’s typically inventive music. Following What the World Needs Now are Where Do We Go?, with Frisell’s one turn here on acoustic guitar on a mellow blues, and the gospel song We Shall Overcome performed with a simple and peaceful feeling. Together, they form a social justice trilogy to end the set. In discussing this band with David Hajdu for the liner notes, Frisell likens the experience to a dream where “you're on the edge of a cliff, and you know on a certain level that it's a dream, so you can just jump off ... All three of us could take big chances, and we'd always be rescued. It's about the trust that makes risks possible.” Is he talking about music, or life itself? Both, I’d say. Absolutely recommended. 

Blue Note; Bill Frisell (el g; ac g on *) Thomas Morgan (b) Rudy Royston (d); Portland, OR, no dates specified; Baba Drame/ Hour Glass/ Valentine/ Levees/ Winter Always Turns to Spring/ Keep Your Eyes Open/ A Flower is a Lovesome Thing/ Electricity/ Wagon Wheels/ Aunt Mary/ What the World Needs Now is Love/ Where Do We Go?*/ We Shall Overcome; 65:33. www.bluenote.com

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin’

It was passed over for initial release, then omitted from a series of Blue Note vault issue programs, but now, 60 years after it was recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio, we all get to hear Just Coolin’, a March 1959 session by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. This was a short-lived edition of the band, with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley back in the group for a few months, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. Four of these pieces were recorded live for the band’s At The Jazz Corner Of The World double-album about six weeks after this studio session. Mobley’s three numbers (Hipsippy Blues, the finger-snapping M&M and the title track) plus Bernice Petkere’s Close Your Eyes made it to the Birdland stage, so this album stayed on the shelf. There are plenty of flashes of brilliance throughout, especially from the perennially underrated Mobley (who suffers from a squeaky reed on Timmons’ hip but otherwise unrecorded Quick Trip and elsewhere) and the much-praised Morgan. But as a band effort the music doesn’t always cohere, and for a ensemble that had so many great days in the studio and documented in performance, this set seldom rises to the heights. Still, previously unheard solos by Lee Morgan are always a plus, and from a historical perspective, this set adds insight into a transitional period for the band. It’s also a curious fact that this 60-year old music sounds as fresh as yesterday, while in 1959, styles that were prevalent even just 30 years before seemed terribly dated. Recommended.
Blue Note; Lee Morgan (tpt) Hank Mobley (ts) Bobby Timmons (p) Jymie Merritt (b) Art Blakey (d); Hackensack, NJ, March 8, 1959; Hipsippy Blues/ Close Your Eyes/ Jimerick/ Quick Trick/ M&M/ Just Coolin’; 38:57. www.bluenote.com

The Nels Cline 4: Currents, Constellations

Lou Reed’s 1978 musical theorem that “You can’t beat guitars, bass, drum” is proved by The Nels Cline 4 on their debut outing for Blue Note, Currents, Constellations. Cline and fellow guitar-slinger Julian Lage recorded the well-received duo CD Room in late 2013, and toured in that format. The widely-experienced Cline was particularly enthusiastic about playing with Lage, leading to this band with Scott Colley on bass, who played with Lage in The New Gary Burton Quartet, and drummer Tom Rainey, who collaborated with Cline in a trio with Andrea Parkins. That gives the group a combustible blend of new associations combined with musical familiarity. Tom Rainey kicks off Furtive, the first of seven Cline originals, and we’re off. It’s a four-way conversation with bits of rock and funk music, a touch of surf music, and a jazzy rhythmic flow that conjures the right atmosphere for these joyously dueling guitars. The bittersweet Swing Ghost ‘59 features a potent Scott Colley solo, with Cline and Lage trading licks throughout over the energized drumming of Rainey. From the swaggering big beat of Imperfect 10 to the atmospheric haze of As Close As That, the radical stop-and-start structure of Amenette, and the broad sweep of the optimistic-sounding River Mouth, Cline’s songs give the quartet plenty of varied material to excite their imaginations and guide the beautifully meshed improvisations. The sole cover is Temporarily, a very early Carla Bley composition that was played by the 1961 edition of the Jimmy Giuffre trio. The quartet’s version is sparsely arranged, with plenty of space for each bass note or touch of a cymbal to stand out. Closing out the disc is the brief and disarmingly tender For Each, A Flower, the perfect ending for this very fine outing by Cline, Lage and friends. Cheerfully recommended.
Blue Note B002811702; Nels Cline, Julian Lage (g) Scott Colley (b) Tom Rainey (d); Brooklyn, May & October 2017; Furtive/ Swing Ghost '59/ Imperfect 10/ As Close As That/ Amenette/ Temporarily/ River Mouth (Parts 1 & 2)/ For Each, A Flower; 44:19. www.bluenote.com

Kenny Barron Quintet: Kenny Barron Quintet

There are musicians who bring a lively spirit to everything they play, and their enthusiasm and musicianship serves to raise the level of whoever they choose to play with. Pianist Kenny Barron is surely one of those very special people, and Concentric Circles by the Kenny Barron Quintet is a good illustration of the phenomenon. With bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake, who played on his 2015 trio album, Book Of Intuition, plus trumpeter Mike Rodriquez and saxophonist Dayna Stephens, the 75-years young Barron has surrounded himself with a group of accomplished younger musicians rising to the occasion of playing alongside a master jazzman. The program features Barron’s original compositions, joined by Caetano Veloso and Cezar Medes’ Aquele frevo axe, Lenny White’s L’s Bop, and Thelonious Monk’s Reflections, which ends the set in a probing solo piano rendition. The elegantly swinging Barron is in top-notch form throughout, whether he’s driving the brisk Von Hangman or snaking his way through the slow-moving In the Dark. A pensive Rodriguez, playing a muted horn, is especially effective on the latter piece. The happy sound of Baile, with its Latin feel, makes it one of my favorites on the disc. On tenor, Stephens is fervent and dramatic, alternating passages with the bouncy sound of Rodriguez’ trumpet before they make way for Barron’s frisky piano solo. To tell the truth, there isn’t a single uninteresting moment on this 66 minute CD, and plenty of supremely attractive passages. Concentric Circles is yet another milestone in the storied career of Kenny Barron, and it is eagerly recommended.
Blue Note B002832502; Mike Rodriquez (tp, flgh) Dayna Stephens (ss, ts) Kenny Barron (p) Kiyoshi Kitagawa (b) Johnathan Blake (d); Brooklyn, NY, March 19-20, 2017; DPW/ Concentric Circles/ Blue Waters/ A Short Journey/ Aquele frevo axe/ Von Hangman/ In the Dark/ Baile/ L's Bop/ I'm Just Sayin'/ Reflections; 66:18. www.bluenote.com