Nodern Jazz New Thing

With the Compact Jazz series offering plenty of fine single-artist starter discs, there should be no hesitation in picking up this multi-artist overview for that jazz neophyte friend. As usual, the price is right and the selection generous. Covering the '50s, '60s, and '70s, the disc includes both vocal and instrumental tracks from the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Dinah Washington, Erroll Garner, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.

With the Compact Jazz series offering plenty of fine single-artist starter discs, there should be no hesitation in picking up this multi-artist overview for that jazz neophyte friend. As usual, the price is right and the selection generous. Covering the '50s, '60s, and '70s, the disc includes both vocal and instrumental tracks from the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Dinah Washington, Erroll Garner, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.

Departing from the sound of Inside Straight and the Christian McBride Trio, bass giant McBride fronts New Jawn (derived from Philadelphia slang), a quartet with no chordal instrument. The album has the spark and loose feeling of a live set, its spacious harmonic language articulated with equal parts rigor and abandon by tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland and trumpeter Josh Evans. Each player writes two tunes, beginning with McBride’s lopsided scene-setter “Walkin’ Funny” and later his modern waltz “John Day” (with Strickland doubling on bass clarinet). Drummer Nasheet Waits, with his unique facility and expression in every context, from free-form to hard swing, contributes “Ke-Kelli Sketch” and the affecting ballad “Kush” (another bass clarinet piece). Evans’ entries range from the darkly hued “Ballad of Ernie Washington” to the Caribbean-tinged “Pier One Import,” while Strickland’s “The Middle Man” and “Seek the Source” bring the heat and light of surging uptempo post-bop and idiosyncratic blues in turn.

With ensemble vocal jazz, the danger is always that tight and complex harmony writing will come across as too smooth and too sweet – for some reason, chords that sound sharp and bracing when distributed among reed instruments can sound cloying and overly slick when sung by human voices. The vocal/instrumental quartet New York Voices don't avoid that trap entirely on their latest album (and their first as an ensemble in seven years), but they continue to demonstrate their mastery of the genre with a solid program of new and old songs and innovative arrangements. Their take on "Darn That Dream" is startlingly new (and features a fine bass clarinet solo by Bob Mintzer), and the lyrics that group members added to John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice" work very nicely. Not everyone will agree that the world needed a vocal jazz version of Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic," but the New York Voices' version is really lots of fun and is sure to bring a nostalgic tear to more than one baby-boomer eye. Apart from a couple of saccharine moments on "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," A Day Like This is a pleasure from start to finish. Recommended.

Ken McIntyre - Stone Blues (1960) {Prestige New Jazz OJCCD-1818-2 rel 1993}
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© 1960, 1993 Prestige New Jazz | OJCCD-1818-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone / Flute

This early effort by Ken McIntyre (who doubles here on alto and flute) grows in interest with each listen. On a couple of his six originals (including a song called "Cornballs"), McIntyre slide humorously between notes but other selections are much more serious. McIntyre's sidemen are now somewhat obscure (trombonist John Mancebo Lewis, pianist Dizzy Sal, bassist Paul Morrison and drummer Bobby Ward) but they fit well into his conception which at this early stage was essentially advanced bop slightly influenced by the "new thing" music of Ornette Coleman. This interesting set has been reissued on CD.

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra - Dee Dee's Feathers (2015) {OKeh Records}
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© 2015 OKeh Records / DDB Records / Sony Music | 88875063532
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Beyond Jazz / New Orleans Jazz / Post Bop

‘Dee Dee’s Feathers’ is the first collaboration of three-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer-songwriter Dee Dee Bridgewater, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s (NOJO) and its Artistic Director and jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. The album, the first new music by Dee Dee Bridgewater since 2010, will be available in Europe and Asia on April 20th, 2015. Dee Dee’s Feathers gives a modern vision of New Orleans, painted through traditional songs such as Big Chief, Saint James Infirmary, and What a Wonderful World along with new compositions Congo Square and C’est Ici Que Je T’aime, which will transport people through the newly constructed home of Dee Dee Bridgewater in the historic neighborhood of the Tremé.