Donald Thomas

A landmark album – Donald Byrd's first session with producer Larry Mizell, the man who went onto forever change the face of jazz funk! After rumbling around for a few years attempting electric styles that really didn't fit his mode, Donald wisely hooked up with Larry, and hit a groove here that would carry him for many many years. The album's a masterpiece of soul – heavy production with great keyboards, creating a nice set of grooves that let Byrd solo over the top, sounding better than he had in years! Great all the way through, and with tracks that include "Flight Time", "Sky High", "Black Byrd", "Slop Jar Blues", "Mr Thomas", and the prophetically-titled "Where Are We Going?".

"The Fifth Century" was commissioned by American choir The Crossing and marks the return of composer Gavin Bryars to ECM after 24 years. The vocal ensemble is joined by saxophone quartet Prism on the large-scale work that sets a text from English poet and theologian Thomas Traherne, who remained unknown for over 200 years. The album also features Two Love Songs, two settings of Petrarch sonnets for unaccompanied female choir.

A deep yet unsentimental emotional resonance and a patient, contemplative view of time whether relating to harmonic rhythm or human experience are complementary characteristics that run through his instrumental, vocal and theatrical catalog like a red thread, the composer inspired by disparate spirits from Wagner and Satie to Cage and Silvestrov. The ECM New Series released multiple recordings of Bryars music in the 1980s and early 90s, including the classic albums After the Requiem and Vita Nova. The first full ECM album from Bryars in decades is The Fifth Century, which includes the seven-part title work: a slowly evolving yet immediately involving setting of words by 17th-century English mystic Thomas Traherne, performed by the mixed choir of The Crossing with saxophone quartet PRISM. The album also features Two Love Songs, luminous a cappella settings of Petrarch for the women of The Crossing. The music within words, the humanity in breath, the sense of eternity within a moment or of a moment in eternity all are at play in Bryars latest music on ECM.

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Nothing has hit quite as hard as recent music from the trio of pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and Drummer Donald Edwards. The three musicians seek out (or probably are sought by) collaborators of equal weight and energy. It is not surprising that this recording of nine compositions, led by trumpeter and Seattle native Thomas Marriott, is a knockout from the opening number.