Trumpeter Raphe Malik is a distinguished if underappreciated master of his instrument and the free jazz movement. For this recording date – a concert at the Fire in the Valley Festival in 1997 – Malik assembled a band of giants in tenor savant Glenn Spearman, drummer Dennis Warren, and bassist George Langford. Malik and Spearman, having worked in the Cecil Taylor unit at different times, have like-minded approaches to composition, and are therefore a perfect match…
Reissue with the latest 24bit/192kHz remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. Gene Harris never veered closer to mainstream jazz-funk than Tone Tantrum – a slick, propulsive record recalling Donald Byrd's classic sessions with the Mizell brothers (not surprising, given that Byrd turns up on a few tracks here). It's very much a product of its time, channeling influences from underground disco to Stevie Wonder, and remains arguably the most blatantly commercial release in the entire Blue Note catalog.
Bill Perkins pays tribute to former boss Woody Herman on this CD by leading a 14-piece big band through a variety of standards, most of which were featured by Herman. Actually, this is more of a tribute to Herman's spirit than to his original recordings, for the arrangements (by Jim Knight, John La Barbera, Dennis Mackrel, Frank Strazzeri and Mark Taylor) are much newer; not all of the songs (such as "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me," "9:20 Special" and "Blue Lou") were that closely connected with Herman's legacy, and his hits ("Four Brothers" and "Early Autumn") are absent. In addition, there is no clarinetist in the band filling in for Herman…