Craig A. Hart

The four members of this quintet studied jazz together at the renowned William Patterson University in New Jersey. The exceptional affinity among them is evident on this Craig’s fifth album for SteepleChase. The album’s intriguing leitmotif of chromatic scale of 12 notes and/or the 12-bar blues conceived by the leader Craig Brann is flawlessly executed by the like-minded fivesome here.

Brooklyn was gentrifying but still affordable during the ’90s, when another wave of Boomers and post-Boomers — Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Robert Glasper, and Arturo O’Farrill among them — entered the mix. That wave also included bassist Joris Teepe, born in the Netherlands, now 56, who is the fulcrum of this kinetic, sophisticated, endlessly creative trio recital. During those years, Teepe lived in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood, around the corner from Prospect Park, not far from the residence of drummer Billy Hart, 78, originally from Washington, D.C., who both propels and unifies the proceedings from the first note to the last with fresh, shamanistically intuitive ideas.

For their fourth release, a true Jazz supergroup, The Cookers, have swapped out saxophonist Craig Handy for Donald Harrison, raising the median age of the septet to just under 70. All of that longevity doesn’t mean complacency, however: The 69-year-old pianist George Cables, septuagenarians Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Billy Harper (tenor saxophone), Cecil McBee (bass) and Billy Hart (drums) and the Cookers’ two youngsters, Harrison (54) and trumpeter David Weiss (49) may bring well-defined personal styles to this ongoing project, but there’s nothing retro about them. The Cookers cook, all right, and if anything they’ve become even more assured, skillful and single-minded with each new offering.

It’s that phenomenon that is thoroughly explored on All About Elvis: A Tribute To The King, a 3CD set compiled and annotated by rock & roll authority Dave Penny. Its 97 tracks, dating from 1954 to 1962, were recorded by Elvis’s contemporaries. CD1 Elvis Style rounds up recordings sung in the style of Elvis, including contributions by Conway Twitty, Ral Donner, Roy Orbison and Sleepy LaBeef. CD2 Elvis Songs comprises songs associated with Elvis, featuring the likes of Carl Perkins, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and Eddie Cochran. Bobby Bare aside, CD3 Elvis Adored has the least familiar names, as all manner of artists rushed to sing the praises of The King. Manager “Colonel” Tom Parker was a prolific licensor of lucrative Elvis merchandise, including badges, combs, dolls and key chains, and he was also a ruthless protector of copyright, so many recordings that traded on brand Presley were quashed or pulled from release at his instigation.