Verve Records 2019

Countless young artists have emulated iconic predecessors like Bob Dylan, but Kenyan-born singer-songwriter J.S. Ondara is a Dylan disciple who managed to recentre his idol’s influence by applying a 21st-century immigrant’s perspective to his debut album. In songs like the a cappella “Turkish Bandana”, the sinuously bluesy “American Dream” and the prayerful “God Bless America”, Ondara earnestly interrogates how the nation’s promises of welcome and prosperity can exclude outsiders. During the latter tune, he fingerpicks an acoustic guitar and quietly appeals, “Will you let me in, or are you at capacity? Will you set me free, or are you holding on to history?” Ondara sings with softly accented clarity over the warm glow and rootsy rustle of his production, drawing on Dylan’s poetic mystique and idealism rather than his trickster tendencies.

Recorded live at New York’s singular downtown nightspot in late 2018, Anatomy of Angels finds Jon Batiste, pianist and bandleader of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in a setting wholly different from his 2018 vocal outing Hollywood Africans. The album faithfully follows the arc of a live set as Batiste, bassist Phil Kuehn, and drummer Joe Saylor settle in for some deep trio exploration up top with “Creative” and “Dusk Train to Doha.” The format evolves as Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price takes the stage for a vocal-piano duet on the old ballad “The Very Thought of You.” Then, with hearty and infectious audience approval, four horns join the fray on Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” (Giveton Gelin and Jon Lampley on trumpets, Tivon Pennicott and Patrick Bartley on tenor and alto saxes respectively). The horns stay on for the closing title track, a nearly 13-minute journey through dazzling tempo shifts and solos that are by turns cathartic and gorgeously lyrical. Batiste’s TV gig, great as it is, probably can’t beat the feeling of this kind of high-level invention, on jazz’s most revered bandstand.

If the little world of jazz wasn't exactly slow to pick up on the outstanding talent of Andrea Motis — the great Quincy Jones in person told us all about her in 2012 when she was 17 (he'd invited her on stage at the Barcelona Festival) — there's no question that the 2017 release of Emotional Dance, her first real album as a leader on the prestigious Impulse! label, suddenly took the career of this young Catalan singer-trumpeter into another dimension altogether.

Born into a musical family in Argentina, Sebastian Plano is a classically-trained contemporary composer and multi-instrumentalist. Exploring his strong roots in folk music and tango, and enchanted by the resonance of electronic music, he began to interpret his influences with his own sounds at age 12. His music draws from a wide pool of influences. Indeed, it is influenced by much of classical music, but we also find similarities to some soundtrack composers, as well as certain musicians such as Ólafur Arnalds, Sigur Rós, Arvo Pärt, Nils Frahm and Max Richter. Plano has gained international acclaim with albums 'Arrhythmical Part of Hearts' and 'Impetus', placing him as one of the pioneering artists combining classical and electronic elements.

Wes Montgomery - Movin': The Complete Verve Recordings 1964-1968 (2019) {5CD Set, Verve Reissues, Digital Issue}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Digital Download -> 2.41 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.00 Gb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 1964-68, 2019 Verve Reissues / UMG
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Guitar

All eight of the albums Wes Montgomery issued on Verve in the mid-'60s (including the two he did with organist Jimmy Smith) are on this limited-edition, five-CD box set. With the addition of 20 bonus tracks (none previously unreleased, some of them alternate takes or overdubbed versions), it's the definitive compilation of his work for the label. By its very size, of course, its appeal might be limited to completists and serious collectors.

Joe Williams was the last great big-band singer, a smooth baritone who graced the rejuvenated Count Basie Orchestra during the 1950s and captivated audiences well into the '90s. Born in Georgia, he moved to Chicago with his grandmother at the age of three. Reunited with his mother, she taught him to play the piano and took him to the symphony. Though tuberculosis slowed him down as a teenager, Williams began performing at social events and formed his own gospel vocal quartet, the Jubilee Boys.