Dezron Douglas – Atalaya

NEA Jazz Master Louis Hayes certainly personifies the term "living history." Born in Detroit, Hayes packed up his drum set and caught a train east, arriving in New York City in 1956 to join the Horace Silver Quintet. In 1959 he joined the Cannonball Adderley band, finding himself, in his early 20s, at the nerve center of the jazz world. He would visit John Coltrane in his apartment and was to make several justly famous recordings with him. Over the next 60 years Hayes amassed a impressively great body of work, playing and recording with Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Cedar Walton, Sonny Rollins, Woody Shaw and many more of the giants of modern music.

Andy Scott is a jazz singerbut that's like saying Al Pacino is an ''actor'' and Julia Childs a ''cook.'' Scott comes from the tradition of the classic ballad/American Songbook style but he's not ''retro''like the best singers he melds the best of the past with the immediacy of the Eternal Now, with an eye on the horizon. Angels finds Scott collaborating with jazz piano heavyweight Cyrus Chestnut, one of the finest Jazz & Gospel pianists on the planet who also co-wrote the title tune. Whereas some jazz singers perform/record many done-to-death standards, Scott ups the ante by writing (or co-writing) nearly all of the songs on Angelslike they say in the movies, this time it's personal.

Hayes provided the rhythmic drive for some of the most important and legendary recordings in jazz history including classics by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, and McCoy Tyner.

Legendary drummer Louis Hayes makes his Blue Note debut with this loving tribute to his mentor and friend, the great pianist, composer and bandleader Horace Silver. Hayes was 19 years old when he moved to New York City in 1956 and joined Silver’s quintet, putting his stamp on several timeless Blue Note recordings. Co-produced by Don Was and bassist Dezron Douglas with the eminent Maxine Gordon acting as executive producer, "Serenade for Horace" presents Hayes leading an ensemble that revisits 10 Silver classics in addition to the Hayes original Hastings Street, a dedication to his hometown of Detroit. The album's first single "Song for My Father" features Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter.

Louis Hayes, one of the chief architects of modern jazz drumming, was the rhythmic drive for historic recordings by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon and McCoy Tyner. When he reformed the Jazz Communicators, the band that he co-founded in the late 1960s with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, Hayes purposefully deviated from a conventional quintet lineup by featuring vibraphone and tenor saxophone out front. It’s the esteemed pair of Steve Nelson and Abraham Burton respectively, and their chemistry with Hayes, pianist David Bryant and bassist Dezron Douglas makes "Return of the Jazz Communicators" an inspired and rewarding set.

DE3 is a cooperative trio whose name is an acronym for its members: bassist Dezron Douglas, drummer Eric McPherson both of whom came from trumpeter Duane Eubanks's, quintet (which includes saxophonist Abraham Burton and Marc Cary on keyboards). The result is the "Live At Maxwell's", where "live" basically means unedited rather than with an audience. In the end the meaning is the same in that the music has that unplanned, chance-taking feeling of a live concert. The actual sound is on the dry side but highly detailed with a very strong you-are-there feel.

Joel Frahm is New York-based saxophonist and recording artist. This album features "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", "Early Autumn" and other love songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Bossa Nova's famous songs romantically and sentimentally tells jazz's attractive tenor saxophone.

British singer, songwriter, and composer Sally Night followed her stunning Venus debut album, "Love For Sale", with the second album, "Ballads For You". As the title suggests, it is a collection of beautiful ballads, 13 standards and two originals. Night is backed by supremely talented, first-rate New York-based musicians: Jon Davis on piano, Dezron Douglas on bass, Willie Jones III on drums and Romero Lubambo on guitar. The selections showcase her sophisticated singing technique and her personal style.

Cyrus Chestnut is a highly-regarded, Baltimore-born jazz pianist, who embraces a range of influences from hard bop, and modalism, to gospel. For this release for Japanese audiophile label, Venus Records, he is joined with the bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Neal Smith to re-imagine the classics from Beethoven and Chopin to Bach and Tchaikovsky in Piano Trios jazz arrangements.

Much like what has happened with Smalls Records, the cottage industry that Smoke jazz club started when they debuted their own record label last fall has continued to grow into a viable commodity. So too, there is common ground to the look and feel of each release, even as the color scheme and the music itself changes. For the label's 5th full release, they have documented a November 2013 set led by the mighty Detroit drummer Louis Hayes and his quintet.