New York Sessions

This Black Lion CD combines together four selections from a quintet session featuring altoist Sonny Stitt, trumpeter Howard McGhee, pianist Walter Bishop, bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Kenny Clarke (three boppish blues and a Stitt feature on "Lover Man") with four selections showcasing Stitt with unknown accompaniment from a 1962 date at Birdland. The saxophonist recorded so many sessions that it is not necesssary to acquire them all to get a good sampling of his playing (particularly since his style was virtually unchanged after the mid-'50s), but the CD has its heated moments.

The New York Trio, led by pianist Bill Charlap with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Bill Stewart, exists exclusively as a band to record for the Japanese jazz market, as Charlap has a regular trio with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington, while both Leonhart and Stewart are busy session musicians who occasionally also lead their own record dates. These 2007 sessions focus exclusively on the extensive songbook of the prolific Irving Berlin. Most of the ten tunes heard on this CD have long since become standards and are frequently recorded by jazz artists. One that isn't typically heard as an instrumental is "I Got the Sun in the Morning" (from the musical Annie Get Your Gun), heard in a loping yet infectious interpretation. "How Deep Is the Ocean" is one of Berlin's most recorded songs, yet this version sizzles with energy, unlike the typical ballad treatments…

Since finishing second to Joshua Redman in the Thelonious Monk Institute's tenor sax competition, Eric Alexander has built an impressive discography as a leader, while also drawing a lot of attention in both the U.S. and Japan. This Venus CD, recorded in 2005 and one of the last sessions by pianist John Hicks (who died just over a year later), primarily focuses on standards, with the exception of Hicks' tense hard bop vehicle "Avotcja." A loping treatment of "Sunday in New York" is a solid opener, conveying the image of a brisk walk in Central Park on a cool autumn day. Alexander's driving arrangement of "Dearly Beloved" and the lush, slowly savored duet with Hicks of "Like Someone in Love" are obvious highlights. He also revives the unjustly obscure "My Girl Is Just Enough Woman for Me" in swinging fashion.

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