Hargrove

Damn! marked Jimmy Smith's return to the Verve label after an absence of 20-plus years (he originally recorded for the label from 1963 to 1972), and paired with a group of young and sympathetic jazz players that includes Roy Hargrove and Nicholas Payton on trumpet and Ron Blake and Mark Tuner on sax, he sounds invigorated here, striding across the Hammond B-3 keys with definite energy. The whole album, start to finish, works a wonderful groove, but versions here of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," and Charlie Parker's "Scrapple from the Apple" are particularly strong. Smith was arguably at his best in stripped-down trios, and his work for Blue Note between 1956 and 1960 will always be the quality reference point for his extensive canon, but Damn! is right up there with his best work, full of a joyous energy, and it sparked a resurgence of sorts for Smith.

Had Marcus Miller chosen a more fusion-centric path, it's quite possible that he would have become as iconic among fusion heads as Jaco Pastorius or Miroslav Vitous. Miller certainly knows his way around his electric bass, and he probably would have been a great addition to Return to Forever if Stanley Clarke had been unavailable for their 2008 reunion tour and Chick Corea had offered him the gig. But that is speculation, of course. What we can say with certainty is that being hell-bent for fusion is not the path chosen by the highly eclectic, broad-minded Miller, who is as well known for his work with Luther Vandross and for co-writing E.U.'s 1988 funk/go-go hit "Da Butt" as he is for the composing, producing, and playing he did on Miles Davis' Tutu and Amandla albums in the ‘80s.

Sonny Rollins - Road Shows, Vol. 2 (2011) {Doxy Records 0602527749723 rec 2010}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 456 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 159 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 56 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010, 2011 EmArcy / Doxy Records | 0602527749723
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

The Beacon Theatre in New York holds 2,700 people, and—much like fans claiming to have seen the final game of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field—there may already be 20,000 people who swear they were there for Sonny Rollins' 80th Birthday performance. At 80 years old, Rollins is still a damn good tenor saxophonist, and Roadshows Volume 2 captures terrific performances from three 2010 live dates, with a heavy emphasis on that birthday party and some A-list guests.

Tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore offers up a satisfying array of neo hard bop numbers on Furthermore which features some of the up and coming stars of the Wynton Marsalis retro trad jazz school, including trumpeter Roy Hargrove, pianist Benny Green, and bassist Peter Washington, as well as veteran drummers Kenny Washington (Peter's brother) and Victor Lewis. The CD opens with the thematically rich Moore original "Hopscotch" (reminiscent of Coltrane's "Moment's Notice") and works its way through Green's driving "Phoebe's Samba" and Hargrove's Wayne Shorter inspired mood piece "Into Dawn," with all three tunes providing prime vehicles for the innovative yet restrained soloing of these young players…

Afro Physicist, trumpeter Theo Croker’s third album as a leader and his debut on Dee Dee Bridgewater’s DDB imprint and the Sony-owned OKeh brand, showcases him in a context that might be called “retro-progressive.” Many of its stylistic elements have a distinct ’70s-era flavor, but the way Croker mashes them together and then tops everything off with his straightforward but imaginative soloing marks him as an avatar of genre-defying postmodernism. “Realize,” for instance, blazes no new trails—rock/jazz/funk fusionists staked out this territory at least 35 years ago.