Braden King

James Carter Organ Trio - At The Crossroads (2011) {EmArcy 0602527768854}
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© 2011 EmArcy / UMG | 0602527768854
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Creative / Saxophone

At the Crossroads, saxophonist James Carter's third disc for the Emarcy, is the first for the label with his Organ Trio, which has been together since 2004. Produced by Michael Cuscuna, it's an indelible portrait of Detroit's historic jazz scene, envisioned in the present while looking ahead. All trio members – Carter, organist Gerard Gibbs, and drummer Leonard King, Jr. – either reside or come from there. This disc also showcases Carter's development from his earliest days shedding in the Motor City to his current status as a jazz virtuoso.

Jimmy Ponder - Ain't Misbehavin' (2000) {HighNote HCD7041 rec 1998}
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© 1998, 2000 HighNote Records | HCD 7041
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Blues / Guitar

Ponder’s guitar work on this album is warm and tinged with references to Wes Montgomery. On the opening “On Broadway,” pianist John Hicks, bassist Dwayne Dolphin and drummer Cecil Brooks III step in behind the guitarist with a clipped, Wynton Kelly-Paul Chambers-Jimmy Cobb strut. “Sunny” is bluesy and slow, and Ponder’s phrasing and tremolo recall B.B. King. “My One and Only Love” swings easy, with the guitar chords and low-register lines very reminiscent of Montgomery. Elsewhere, Ponder employs call-and-response phrases and octave-voiced lines that also recall the late guitarist.

The Great American GROOVE Book/familiar all time favorites performed by brilliant trumpet player and big band Produced and arranged by Tim Ouimette, an amazing composer and arranger who has worked with the likes of Ray Charles and Ben E. King. Since her start in the Harry James Band in 1982, Louise has been performing with some of the greatest entertainers in the world… she is a seasoned jazz veteran with great chops and she brings in a great band, including…

This is an attractive eight-CD set (+ Bonus CD), whose discs are also available as eight separate releases, that could have been a great reissue but settled for being merely quite good. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first jazz recording, RCA released a disc apiece covering each of the past eight decades. In listening to the music straight through, one becomes aware of RCA's strengths and weaknesses as a jazz label. Victor was one of the most important jazz labels during the 1920s, '30s and '40s, catching on to bebop a little late (1946) but still documenting many classic recordings. By the 1950s, the label's attention was wandering elsewhere; it missed free jazz almost completely in the '60s, and in the last three decades has only had a few significant artists, mostly Young Lions whose output sounds conservative compared to the earlier masters…