Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2023 i JazzTimes

– Exclusive Content For our latest JazzTimes 10 list, Michael J. West chooses 10 outstanding albums from the catalog of the late great alto saxophonist and bandleader Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. Plus album and festival reviews, obituaries, essays on key moments in jazz history by JT critic Colin Fleming, and more. – JT News Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso, a 21-year-old vocalist born and raised in Veracruz, Mexico, took first place in the 11th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, held Nov. 20 in front of a live audience at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, N.J. Second place went to Ekep Nkwelle, a singer/songwriter from Washington, D.C., and a past member of Howard University’s vocal jazz ensemble Afro Blue. Third place belonged to Harlem-based Allan Harris, who noted…

3 FEBRUARY Brandon Ross & Pendulum Of Sight & Sound Sunnyside The veteran guitarist, one-third of the spectacular Harriet Tubman trio, presents a very different kind of project here, the result of a collaboration between his own Pendulum quartet and visual artist Ford Crull. 17 FEBRUARY Simon Moullier Isla Simon Moullier Music For his third album, the innovative vibraphonist teams with pianist Lex Korten, bassist Alexander Claffy, and drummer Jongkuk Kim, mixing originals and standards. 3 MARCH Kendrick Scott Corridors Blue Note Shaun Brady raved about the vaunted drummer’s trio album with saxophonist Walter Smith III and bassist Reuben Rogers in our October issue, calling it “resonant with both loss and hope.” Unfortunately, we jumped the gun on the review; the album release got pushed to March.…

Montreal-based pianist Taurey Butler, a native of East Orange, N.J., journeyed through Singapore, Thailand, drums, and horns before arriving at the piano, jazz, and his adopted city. On his recent trio recording One of the Others (Justin Time), he tells the story of this journey through 11 tunes, both originals and reimagined standards. It’s a story of migration and relocation, of finding a new home away from home, and of Butler’s roots as an African American. The album art, created by Butler, demonstrates this as well. “I don’t have that artistic technique, but I knew the concept I wanted on the cover,” he told JT. Alluding to The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, it depicts “the migration of Black people from the southern U.S. to the north in search of…

More than a decade after issuing his debut LP, John Escreet finally felt prepared for a rite of passage: recording his first trio album. On this year’s Seismic Shift—unlike on his past six offerings as a leader—there wasn’t a guitar, saxophone or trumpet to accompany Escreet. Instead, the English pianist was solely bolstered by Eric Revis’ woody, booming upright bass and the supple snap of Damion Reid’s drums. Just like Ahmad Jamal on At the Pershing, Bill Evans on Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and Duke Ellington on Money Jungle, there was nowhere in the soundfield for Escreet to hide. Not that he would need to: several of his key collaborators agree that he could have done this earlier. “I would have argued that John was ready a long time…

JOE CHAMBERS Dance Kobina Blue Note Joe Chambers (no relation to Paul Chambers) grew up near Philadelphia, turned pro in 1963 at age 21, and racked up session time with Lee Konitz, Stanley Cowell, Art Farmer, McCoy Tyner, and many more—in addition to many albums as a leader and many composer credits. He switches between drums, vibes, and piano, although he sticks to the first two for this set. That’s his name up front once more, but he’s generous to his many and shifting sidepeople here and content to lay in the background, confident that you’ll come listening for his business. As you will, given the rewards multiple listens (through headphones) are sure to grant you. Montreal pianist Andrés Vial certainly sets the tone on the three tunes (out of…

Strick Muzik This mesmerizing album bears repeated plays without fully revealing its secrets; a meditative, warm, insular, even spongy recording that’s as immersive as it is beautiful, like a small pod both circling earth and protecting it with love and care. The Universe’s Wildest Dream is led by veteran saxophonist and composer Marcus Strickland, joined by Mitch Henry (keyboards), Kyle Miles (bass), and Charles Haynes (drums), with guests including guitarist Lionel Loueke and vocalists Christie Dashiell and Ras Stimulant. Employing sensitive solos, electronic beats, cushioned grooves, and atmospheric production, the music could qualify for Quiet Storm status, or a long-lost George Duke work from his post-Zappa, pre-commercial period. Even after 10 plays, the music deepens: odd samples, evocative solos, spoken word queries, and blissful sounds give the album a feeling…

Once again, the time has come for JazzTimes’ Year in Review section, in which our critics choose their favorite new and historical jazz releases of the past year or so (that “or so” will prove important in a moment). This year, 22 writers—including yours truly—joined the fun. Actually, I shouldn’t mislead you; it wasn’t all jollity. There were significant challenges to be worked out this year, the most serious of which I’m calling “the triple-double quandary.” Charles Lloyd put out three albums in 2022 that were linked by a common theme, or more accurately a common instrumental configuration: the drumless trio. Those three albums were then packaged together in a three-disc set called Trio of Trios. Similarly, Mary Halvorson released two albums simultaneously, Amaryllis and Belladonna, which clearly referenced one…

Mick Goodrick, a guitarist and teacher who was arguably the most influential guitar pedagogue in the history of jazz, died Nov. 16 at his home in Boston, Mass. He was 77. The cause of death was complications from COVID-19; he had also recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. An accomplished performer in his own right, Goodrick worked with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette, toured with Gary Burton and Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, and briefly worked with the Woody Herman Orchestra. He found his true calling, however, as an educator. He was a faculty member at both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory—where his students included John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, Rale Micic, Lage Lund, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Julian Lage—and he reached countless…

“My overall goal is trying to figure out how to connect the languages of jazz and classical to make an interesting and engaging performance, and also develop my own voice,” Aaron Diehl told me when I first wrote about him in 2010. “Why limit yourself to just playing something here and something there? It’s all gold.” That the 37-year-old pianist has refined and expanded that statement of purpose is evident on three recent albums—as leader on The Vagabond, from 2020 (Diehl’s third for Mack Avenue), and as sideman on fellow pan-genre explorer Tyshawn Sorey’s expansively abstract-to-consonant 2022 releases Mesmerism (Yeros7) and The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi). As Diehl remarked on Zoom from his Harlem apartment before listening to the 11 selections that comprise his first Before & After:…

Clean Feed If Avram Fefer is a new name to you, you are not alone. His new album is so good it should make us all embarrassed to have missed him. Fefer’s primary affiliation is the avant-garde, but he is an atypical outcat. Juba Lee is his second release with a quartet that was formed when guitarist Marc Ribot joined Fefer’s longstanding trio with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Chad Taylor. The opening track, “Showtime,” a basic, rousing anthem, sounds like a song by a bebopper until Fefer blows it up with his blasting, guttural solo. He is a commanding, implacable, exhilarating tenor saxophonist. He also kills on alto. “Love Is in the Air” is a ballad, one of the most searing and raw you will ever hear. Over Taylor’s…

The tragic 2008 scuba-diving death of Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson also marked the sudden end of one of Europe’s most popular contemporary jazz outfits, the eponymous e.s.t. (Es-björn Svensson Trio). Along with bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström, Svensson had fashioned a hybrid approach that incorporated elements from multiple genres and leading-edge technology, appealing to a sizable audience outside of the core jazz fest and clubgoing crowd. As adventurous as he was, few of Svensson’s associates—not his bandmates, not his engineer, not even his wife Eva—were aware that, just weeks before his passing, the 44-year-old had recorded new music in his home that would have extended his reach even further: a solo piano recording, comprising nine self-composed songs that bear little in common with Svensson’s progressive e.s.t. canon. Stashed…

Everyone knows that Joe Williams sang the hell out of the blues, but do you know what else he sang the hell out of? Everything. Williams’ expansive wheelhouse encompassed romantic ballads, songs of heartbreak, swinging standards, bossa novas, and boogaloo beats. He could improvise like a stylish horn player or phrase down the middle like a sophisticated pop singer. He was even a credible scat singer, though it wasn’t a strength. Williams could do more things as well or better than just about any other postwar male jazz singer. Yet his identity remains inextricably tied to the blues hits that defined his six-and-a-half-year tenure with the Count Basie Orchestra, from 1954-1961: “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “Alright, Okay, You Win,” and “The Comeback.” These numbers and others like them…

1 Charles Mingus The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance) How appropriate that for his centennial year, the big man should come out on the top of our annual poll. Take one listen to this sprawling 1972 live set and you’ll know it’s the right call; Mingus’ whole sextet (with Charles McPherson, Roy Brooks, Bobby Jones, John Foster, and Jon Faddis) is an unstoppable force. That Columbia Records recorded the shows and never released a second beggars belief. Be glad yet again that we live in the age of Resonance. M.R. 2. Cecil Taylor The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at the Town Hall NYC, November 4, 1973 (Oblivion) “Autumn/Parade,” a previously unreleased 88-minute Taylor quartet performance, would be thrilling enough on its own. But it also happens to be…

Midnight Waves,” a highlight of Joey Alexander’s sixth album, Origin, describes the nocturnal ocean off Bali, where the teenaged pianist and his parents returned home to sit out part of the pandemic. The family had lived on the island until 2011 when the eight-year-old son’s prodigious keyboard talents had necessitated a move to the national capital of Jakarta—and, two-and-a-half years after that, to New York. That latter move had kicked off a whirlwind six years of five albums, three Grammy nominations, international tours, and a deluge of media attention. But COVID brought all of that to a screeching halt. The son and his parents got off the career treadmill, got out of New York, and went back to Indonesia to decompress and decide on their next moves. Alexander was able…

DEZRON DOUGLAS Atalaya International Anthem “Forward,” intones each member of Dezron Douglas’ quartet, punctuated by the percussive clack of wooden claves, at the outset of the bassist’s latest album. Based on the music that follows, Douglas regards the word not in terms of radical reinvention but simply as a reminder of the continuum of tradition. A protégé of Jackie McLean, Douglas has been a prolific sideman across a wide spectrum of styles, working with straightahead masters (Cyrus Chestnut, Mulgrew Miller, Louis Hayes); searching firebrands (Pharoah Sanders, David Murray); modern torchbearers (Ravi Coltrane, Brandee Younger); post-modernists (Makaya McCraven); and even jazz-influenced rock artists (Phish’s Trey Anastasio). Many of those streams converge on Atalaya, Douglas’ first full-length release as a leader in four years. The paw print on the cover seems to…