Harold O'neal Quartet

Billy Mintz - Mintz Quartet (2013) {Thirteenth Note TNR005}
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© 2013 Thirteenth Note Records | TNR005
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Creative Jazz / Drums / Saxophone

Thirteenth Note Records is pleased to announce the release of drummer Billy Mintz’s debut CD, entitled simply Mintz Quartet. A veteran of both the LA and New York jazz scenes, Mintz is that rare breed of jazz musician who is as comfortable playing standards in a piano trio (which he did in an eight-year stint with the Alan Broadbent Trio) as he is as he is exploring more abstract forms with icons such as Ellery Eskelin and Mark Feldman. While a debut CD of all original material can be a dangerous proposition in less experienced hands, Mintz’s writing is the personal expression of a mature and deeply gifted artist who has quietly been working on his craft. (Several of his originals, such as Flight and Cannonball, have taken on the status of unofficial jazz standards among his peers in the New York jazz world.) The resulting statement is moving, honest and engaging.

Copland was interested in exploring various methods of composition that might stimulate his melodic and harmonic ideas. It had been twenty years since he had adapted serialism to his own use. He said that "composing with all twelve notes of the chromatic scale can give one a feeling of freedom. It's like looking at a picture from a different point of view." Copland was the first to admit that he did not keep strictly to the rules of serialism. In fact, the sense of a tonal center is rarely missing in the Quartet.

It is with a mixture of pride and sorrow that Smoke Sessions Records announces the release of Harold Mabern’s Mabern Plays Mabern on March 20th. Pride because Mabern’s 27th recording as a leader, culled from the same three January 2018 nights that generated his 26th, The Iron Man: Live At Smoke, documents the master pianist, then 81, in prime form, functioning as an inspired soloist, attentive accompanist, melodic interpreter, and crafty tunesmith. Sorrow because the release is posthumous — Harold Mabern died on September 17, 2019, at the age of 83.

Pianist Gene Harris' 1992 quartet (with guitarist Ron Eschete, bassist Luther Hughes, and drummer Harold Jones) explores ten wide-ranging selections on this CD. But despite the very different chord changes, they are able to infuse the music with so much soul that the results are consistently bluesy. Among the tunes that Harris and his group explore are Horace Silver's "Strollin'", "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," "Jeannine", "You Make Me Feel So Young", and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams". An excellent effort.

Sun Ra - Sun Ra with Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold (2018) {Sun Ra Music Archive 048285989863 rec 1964}
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© 2018 Sun Ra LLC / Sun Ra Music Archive | 048285989863
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Jazz Funk / Experimental Big Band / Cosmic Jazz

In November 1964, a number of New York musicians (including Sun Ra) formally banded together as the Jazz Composers Guild. Under JCG sponsorship, the series “Four Days in December” ran from December 28 through 31 at Judson Hall. Sun Ra and his Arkestra appeared on the 31st, along with the New York Art Quartet. All of the music from the Four Days in December series was recorded by the JCG for its own label; a December 1964 announcement in Down Beat indicates that a sampler LP was planned as the first release. However, the Guild broke apart early in 1965, so this never came to pass. Later there were plans (again abortive) to issue the concerts on the Fontana label. Almost a dozen years later (1976), Sun Ra issued the LP "Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold" [comprised of tracks 6–11 of this digital edition].