JazzTimes - January 2023

YEAR IN REVIEW: THE TOP 50 RELEASES OF 2022
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
JOEY
ALEXANDER
BRAD MEHLDAU The Start of the Bali Sound
Exclusive Book Excerpt By Geoffrey Himes
JOHN ESCREET
The Art of the Trio
AARON DIEHL
Before & After
KEYBOARD
SPOTLIGHT
Danilo Pérez
Esbjörn Svensson
jazztimes.com
Brian Auger
Hilario Duran
& David Virelles
Jason Yeager
JOE CHAMBERS BILL FRISELL HERE IT IS
DANCE KOBINA FOUR A TRIBUTE TO LEONARD COHEN
Drummer, percussionist, vibraphonist, composer & Blue Guitarist convenes a new line-up of musical friends with Producer Larry Klein’s star-studded homage to the great
Note legend’s latest album explores the deep connections with Greg Tardy, Gerald Clayton & Johnathan Blake for songwriter features James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones
between Jazz, Latin, Brazilian, Argentine & African music. this stunning meditation on loss, renewal & friendship. Gregory Porter, Peter Gabriel, Nathaniel Rateliff & more.
ELVIN JONES DONALD BYRD ROBERT GLASPER

REVIVAL: LIVE AT POOKIE’S PUB LIVE: COOKIN’ WITH BLUE NOTE AT MONTREUX BLACK RADIO: DELUXE EDITION
Thrilling previously unissued 1967 live 3-LP set captures Previously unreleased 1973 recording captures the great 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of pianist’s game-changing,
the master drummer’s emergence as a bandleader with a trumpeter’s gritty jazz-funk fusion at the Montreux Jazz GRAMMY-winning album comes in 3-LP & 2-CD sets with
quartet featuring Joe Farrell, Billy Greene & Wilbur Little. Festival on the heels of his hit album Black Byrd. bonus tracks, Black Radio Recovered remix EP & a booklet.
CHARLES LLOYD JOHN COLTRANE BLUE NOTE CLASSIC

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Expansive 3 album series presents saxophone legend in Trane’s 1st masterpiece gets 2 Tone Poet Vinyl Editions: All-analog 180g vinyl reissues of classics from
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CONTENTS January/Febrauary 2023 // Volume 53 // Number 1
IN EVERY ISSUE

̫ JT Notes
̬ Opening Chorus
Uncovering a hidden treasure from the
late Esbjörn Svensson; Jason Yeager
pays tribute to Kurt Vonnegut; Hilario
Duran and David Virelles join forces;
Taurey Butler moves north; and farewells
to Kelly Sill, Arnold Jay Smith, Chuck
Deardorf, Terry Woodson, Anthony Or-
tega, Michael G. Nastos, Mick Goodrick,
David Ornette Cherry, Louise Tobin, and
Andrew Speight
Jason Yeager
̨̩ Chronology
Joe Williams
L to R: Eric Revis, John Escreet, and Damion Reid
̩̪ Before & After
Features
Aaron Diehl
̩̮ Overdue Ovation

Brian Auger
̩̰ THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2022

From thousands and thousands of jazz releases, our contributors picked ̬̪ Audio Files
Brent Butterworth on the year in gear
the ones that moved them most—40 new, 10 historical—and commented
on a few. ̬̬ Chops
The Taubman Approach
̪̬ JOHN ESCREET
British pianist John Escreet has now been an American jazz artist for
nearly 20 years. But he’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve—like hiring
bassist Eric Revis and drummer Damion Reid to join him for his first-ever
trio album. Morgan Enos gets the lowdown.
̨̫ BRAD MEHLDAU

In his outstanding new memoir Formation: Building a Personal Canon Part
Lakecia Benjamin
One, pianist and composer Brad Mehldau writes that when he moved to
New York in the late 1980s, he entered “jazz heaven.” You can get a sense
̬̮ Reviews
Joe Chambers; Avram Fefer; Lakecia
of what he means by reading this exclusive book excerpt. Benjamin; Marcus Strickland; Dezron
Douglas; Ramsey Lewis; Satoko Fujii;
Nicholas Payton; archival releases from
Donald Byrd, Art Blakey, and Frank
Zappa; and many more
̫̮ JOEY ALEXANDER

During the pandemic, Joey Alexander returned to home ground—and blos- ̭̮ Artist’s Choice
Pianist Ted Kooshian on swing
somed as a composer. Geoffrey Himes catches up with the pianist at his
new Baltimore pad and learns how his native Bali influenced the sounds
heard on his latest album, Origin. Cover image by Stevie Chris
Table of Contents image of the
John Escreet Trio by Teresa Lee
Ja nua ry/ Fe brua ry 2 02 3 // JA Z Z T I M E S . C OM 1

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2 JA Z Z T I M E S . C OM // Janua ry/ Feb rua ry 2 0 2 3

JT NOTES
The Triple-Double Quandary

O nce again, the time has come for
JazzTimes’ Year in Review section,
in which our critics choose their favorite
opted for separate discs, figuring that at
least some people would prefer one over
the other(s), which was indeed how it
next year. Such are the sacrifices we
make for JazzTimes readers.
—mac randall
new and historical jazz releases of the past turned out.
year or so (that “or so” will prove import- By the way, don’t get me started on the Sour Notes: Our November/December
ant in a moment). This year, 22 writers— problem of Wadada Leo Smith, who put reviews section was plagued by several
including yours truly—joined the fun. out so many albums this year—his 80th— errors. A.D. Amorosi’s review of the Sun Ra
Actually, I shouldn’t mislead you; it that I honestly lost track. He wound up Arkestra’s Living Sky attested that Marshall
wasn’t all jollity. There were significant in our top 50 twice, which seems unfair Allen has led the ensemble since Sun Ra’s
challenges to be worked out this year, the as it barely conveys the enormity of the death in 1993. This is untrue; saxophonist
most serious of which I’m calling “the contribution he made to jazz in 2022; on John Gilmore took Ra’s place for two years
triple-double quandary.” Charles Lloyd the other hand, having a top 50 mostly until his own passing in 1995. David Whiteis’
put out three albums in 2022 that were made up of one man’s albums would have review of two Leonard Cohen tribute albums
linked by a common theme, or more ac- been, let’s face it, a little weird. stated that Cohen was still alive and working
curately a common instrumental config- One further dilemma we didn’t have at the time that one of them, Art of Time
uration: the drumless trio. Those three to face was what to do about the two Ah- Ensemble’s Songs of Leonard Cohen Live,
albums were then packaged together mad Jamal live sets recorded at Seattle’s was recorded; in fact, he had passed away
in a three-disc set called Trio of Trios. Penthouse club, one dating from 1963- more than a year earlier. And Nicole Zuraitis’
Similarly, Mary Halvorson released two 64 and the other from 1965-66. That’s name was misspelled twice in Ken Micallef’s
albums simultaneously, Amaryllis and because the Jamal albums were released review of Sonica’s debut album. Also in that
Belladonna, which clearly referenced one one week past our Year in Review eligi- same issue, Alan Nahigian was inadvertently
another and were also later repackaged bility cutoff date of Nov. 11—a date that not credited for the photograph of Louis
as a single two-disc set. So what should also disqualified a flood of other releases Hayes on pg. 20 and Pat Metheny’s From This
our critics do: vote for the full package in mid-to-late November. But our final Place album was misidentified as From This
as one “album” or for the separate discs? painful reckoning with this matter has, Time in Ted Panken’s cover story on Antonio
In the end, after much agonizing, we of course, only been postponed until Sánchez. We regret the errors.
THE EVOLUTION AND

REVOLUTION OF JAZZ!
SINCERELY YOURS MUSIC PRESENTS
Pianist & Composer
Melvin Johnson
DEBUT ALBUM
LITTLE RED WAGON
February 17, 2023
“Melvin’s album is a terriﬁc display of his talent and creativity.

His original and unique album showcases a menagerie of rhythms
and sounds. Melvin is a true professional and an outstanding musician.
His ability to make the piano sing is inspiring; He is a true artist.”
—Amanda Watson, Piano Specialist, Steinway Piano Gallery Houston
MelvinJohnsonMusic.com
OPENING CHORUS
Esbjörn Svensson in 2008
recorded new music in his home that

would have extended his reach even fur-
ther: a solo piano recording, comprising
nine self-composed songs that bear little
in common with Svensson’s progressive
e.s.t. canon. Stashed away on hard drives
for 10 years in Eva’s personal archive,
the recordings—made without another
person present—were not exactly forgot-
ten; they had never even been heard by
anyone but their creator.
Now, after an initial public airing
at a series of audiovisual concerts in
Stockholm in September 2022, they are
being released by ACT Music under the
title HOME.S.
After discovering the recording, Eva
Svensson took it to the Gothenburg,
Sweden, home of Åke Linton, e.s.t.’s
career-long sound engineer. In a Q&A
distributed with the album’s publicity
material, Eva Svensson recalled, “We
pressed the start button … There was
total silence and we couldn’t speak for
the entire time the music was playing.
After it finished … we were both so
Buried Treasure
touched and surprised … that it was so
beautiful.”
Linton, too, was astonished by what
he’d heard. “We were like, ‘Wow, this is
A recently discovered 2008 solo album shows a different side of the something we didn’t expect at all,’” he
late ESBJÖRN SVENSSON says. “We knew that one day we were
gonna do something with this.”
First, though, Linton wanted to be
T he tragic 2008 scuba-diving death

of Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svens-
elements from multiple genres and
leading-edge technology, appealing to a
sure that there wasn’t more of this music
hiding out someplace. “I said, ‘I think
KATARINA GRIP HÖÖK © ACT MUSIC
son also marked the sudden end of one sizable audience outside of the core jazz I’ll make a couple of calls to people in
of Europe’s most popular contemporary fest and clubgoing crowd. Stockholm that he might have done
jazz outfits, the eponymous e.s.t. (Es- As adventurous as he was, few of this recording with.’ I called other
björn Svensson Trio). Along with bassist Svensson’s associates—not his band- engineers, even piano tuners. No one
Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus mates, not his engineer, not even his knew anything about the record.” Even
Öström, Svensson had fashioned a wife Eva—were aware that, just weeks Öström, the former e.s.t. drummer,
hybrid approach that incorporated before his passing, the 44-year-old had heard it for the first time along with
others attending one of the Stockholm whispery, imagistic playing on HOME.S. NEW GROOVES
concerts, held at Sven Harry Museum puts out a different vibe, one that suggests
̫
of Modern Art. There, Linton played Svensson was making this music for the innovative vibra-
phonist teams with
the music on a his own satisfaction,
pianist Lex Korten,
specially designed unconcerned about bassist Alexander
surround-sound whether it was ever FEBRUARY
Stashed away
Claffy, and drum-
system, accompanied heard outside of the mer Jongkuk Kim,
Brandon Ross & mixing originals and
by visuals created by basement where it was
Anders Amrén, e.s.t.’s for 10 years, recorded.
Pendulum
Of Sight & Sound
standards.
̫
longtime lighting “I think he did it,”
the recordings
Sunnyside
designer. Linton says, “because,
The veteran guitar-
Indeed, for anyone as with all bands, you
familiar with e.s.t.’s weren’t exactly work and you work and
ist, one-third of the
spectacular Harriet MARCH
recorded output, it you work, and even
forgotten; they’d
Tubman trio, pres-
takes a minute to if you really like the ents a very different Kendrick Scott
kind of project here, Corridors
accept that these people you’re working
introspective solo never even been with, you need to do
the result of a col-
laboration between
Blue Note
tracks, each assigned something else.”

heard by any-
his own Pendulum Shaun Brady raved
a title corresponding Does Linton believe quartet and visual about the vaunt-
artist Ford Crull. ed drummer’s
with a letter in the that these pieces might
Greek alphabet, are the one but their someday have been
trio album with
̩̯
saxophonist Walter
work of the late Swede. headed for an e.s.t. al-
creator.
Smith III and bassist
Certainly, Svensson’s bum? “I don’t think so, Reuben Rogers in
our October issue,
more reserved side did because somehow this
FEBRUARY calling it “resonant
show up occasionally sounds so complete,” with both loss and
in the trio’s work (give he says, adding, “I just Simon Moullier hope.” Unfortunately,
a listen to “Ajar” on the posthumously hope that people who hear it will feel that Isla we jumped the gun
Simon Moullier Music on the review; the
released Leucocyte album, or the laconic, he’s still around, that he’s still making album release got
bluesy shuffle “Where We Used to Live” people happy with his music.” For his third album, pushed to March.
on 2006’s Tuesday Wonderland). But the —jeff tamarkin
JSERIOUSZPLAY TIME
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John Clayton, Artistic Director
SEE HOW MUCH FUN IT IS TO PLAY BETTER.

JULY 24–30, 2023
John Clayton,
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Jon Hamar and 20
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OPENING CHORUS
Unbe-
“It’s almost
knownst to
anybody at
like the Yeager

the time, that
was a true-
and Vonnegut
jumping-off
point.
families are
As the
months and
once again
years went
by, and Yea-
collaborating.”
ger worked
through the
pages of oth-
er Vonnegut
novels and stories, more artistically
aligned instrumentals emerged. Then,
when given the opportunity to showcase
a project at the Cell Theatre in Manhat-
tan in 2016, the idea for a Vonnegut suite
came together. That initial performance
saw the birth of a septet that spoke to
big-band and orchestral ambitions, and
the group’s strengths and sensibilities
deepened in the years ramping up to this
release. Tapping works like Vonnegut’s
Timequake, The Sirens of Titan and Cat’s
Jason Yeager Cradle to fuel his expansive writing,
Yeager creates smart settings with well-
Suite Centennial
wrought counterpoint while leveraging
the talents of distinctive personalities in-
cluding alternating multi-reedists Lucas
Pino and Patrick Laslie, chair-swapping
JASON YEAGER marks author Kurt Vonnegut’s hundredth birthday trumpeters Alphonso Horne and Riley
in fitting fashion Mulherkar, and trombonist Mike Fahie in
the winds department; vibraphonist Yu-
han Su, bassist Danny Weller and drum-
P ianist and composer Jason Yeager

has no problem detailing the inspi-
ration he draws from literary hero Kurt
nods to Slaughterhouse-Five character
Billy Pilgrim’s unmoored nature, the al-
bum’s origin story simultaneously looks
mer Jay Sawyer in the rhythm sphere; and
guest alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón,
who enhances two numbers. Brilliantly
Vonnegut’s work: “I just love the way that to different points in the past. blurring lines between composition and
he uses precise, clear language in a rather Since the pianist’s grandfather and improvisation, the ensemble delivers mu-
direct way to get his point across. His great-grandfather worked with the writ- sic that, reflective of its influence’s style,
writing is sophisticated, but it’s always er’s father as partners in the architectur- is both complex and highly accessible.
pretty easy to read. Vonnegut writes al firm of Vonnegut, Wright & Yeager Save for one outlier—“So It Goes,”
page-turners. And I love his sense of in Indianapolis in the 1940s, that would sewn together in post-production with
imagination, the way he blends elements seem to be the logical place to start. But snippets of outtakes and spoken-word
of science fiction and social criticism and that’s not really where this tale begins. recordings—every number was cre-
humor. Vonnegut is hilarious, poking “Even though I was somewhat aware of ated live in the studio. And Yeager
fun at the elite, the way the world [op- this relationship between our families,” shares credit with the musicians, plus
erates], and the absurdity of human life Yeager shares, “I didn’t really check out co-producers Andy Warren and Frank
and society. Yet that cynicism is paired Vonnegut’s writing too early. I was well Carlberg, for the clarity in the resultant
with a deeply felt love for humanity.” into my twenties, living in New York, album. In fairness, he also praises the
All of those authorial hallmarks feed when I started to get into it.” In 2013, at contributions of an important spectral
into and grow out of the absorbing that stage of Yeager’s life, the aforemen- presence standing by his side: “Although
music on Yeager’s Unstuck in Time: tioned Vonnegut classic came to rest on I composed and arranged all of the mu-
The Kurt Vonnegut Suite. Recorded in his nightstand. And while reading and sic on this record, I always joke that the
late 2021 and released on November 11, thinking deeply about the protagonist, ghost of Kurt Vonnegut was my unwit-
2022—the exact date of the Vonnegut and entertaining an invitation to bring ting co-composer. In a sense, it’s almost
CHRIS DRUKKER
centennial—this magnum opus is clearly an original to a gig with saxophonist like the Yeager and Vonnegut families
bound to the present moment. But in Kyle Nasser, he penned the wonderfully are once again collaborating.”
embracing the titular phrase, which bewildered “Blues for Billy Pilgrim.” —dan bilawsky
recently when Chucho Valdés’ tour visited
the Berklee Performance Center in Boston;
Duran was serving as co-musical director
(with John Beasley) of Chucho’s big band.
“Since my early twenties, Chucho was my
mentor,” Duran told me. In the Havana of
the 1970s, the young Duran was a student
of Western classical music obsessed with
jazz when Valdés took him under his wing.
Soon he began subbing for the older man in
the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna,
the nation’s most modern big band.
“Subbing for him changed my life,” Du-
ran said. Before long, Duran began writing
arrangements for Irakere, Valdés’ pioneer-
ing jazz and Afro-Cuban band, which also
spawned trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and
sax/clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera. After
all three emigrated, Duran followed. He
joined Sandoval’s band as musical director,
arranger, and pianist for nine years, touring
the world and performing with Dizzy
Gillespie and Michel Legrand.
Virelles, another Cuban émigré and
Duran’s junior by 30 years, had been a
longtime admirer of Duran before he met
David Virelles (L) and Hilario Duran him in Toronto. They were introduced by
Jane Bunnett, the Canadian saxophonist,
Cuba Across the

flutist, and Cuban music bandleader. Du-
ran played in her band for years; Virelles
began subbing for him after he landed
Generations
in Toronto. Virelles eventually departed
for New York, where he has become one
of the most heralded pianists of his gen-
eration, recording as a leader for Pi and
HILARIO DURAN and DAVID VIRELLES come together for Front Street Duets ECM. He has played and recorded with
Henry Threadgill, Andrew Cyrille, Ravi
Coltrane, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, To-
T he last time Hilario Duran, the

69-year-old Cuban Canadian piano
master and composer,
original Duran compositions with a pair of
Cuban standards and, as a closing number,
a spectacular Cubano take on
masz Stanko, Steve Coleman and Wadada
Leo Smith, and many more.
“To me, the album is a continuation
teamed up with another “Body and Soul.” Through- of hundreds of years of Cuban piano
pianist was in 2017, when he ON STAGE out the album, Duran and culture,” Virelles said by phone. “Hi-
performed duets at a concert Virelles play traditional lario and I have different sets of [musi-
̩̮
in Germany with his legend- Afro-Cuban styles like gua- cal] influences, but there’s a collective
ary friend and fellow Cuban jira and punto cubano with consciousness that both of us come out
émigré Chucho Valdés, generous opportunities for of. This album is basically an effort to
accompanied by the WDR FEBRUARY the two pianists to improvise. contribute to that lineage.”
Big Band. Until now. Duran and Virelles play, with The chemistry between the two
Biamp PDX Jazz
Recently Toronto producer fiery commitment, music that pianists makes for a remarkable lis-
Festival (Portland,
Peter Cardinali asked Duran OR): A performance is simultaneously romantic tening experience: It often sounds as
to create an album for his by the Bill Frisell Four and intellectually challeng- if one is listening to one pianist with
Alma label. “Peter suggested featuring Johnathan ing, densely orchestral, and four hands, albeit spanning two pianos.
Blake, Gerald Clayton,
a duet format with a pianist and Gregory Tardy
grounded in an ever-present Duran agreed: “David and I have the
of the younger generation,” will open this annual Cuban tumbao. same background and roots in Cuba. We
Duran said recently by Zoom Northwest confab, Over a career spanning understood each other very well. The only
from his Toronto home. which runs through more than 45 years, Duran difficulty is that sometimes you can’t tell
Feb. 25 and features
“Without hesitation I im- dozens more artists.
has won three Juno Awards, a who’s improvising—David or me—be-
mediately thought of David Grammy nomination, and a cause we sound almost the same. I mean,
JAKE THOMAS
Virelles. I think he’s the most host of other honors, record- we have different styles, but they blend
mature as an artist and as a pianist.” ing more than a dozen albums, including together really well.”
The result is Front Street Duets, a mix of duos, trios, and big bands. I caught him live —allen morrison
OPENING CHORUS
he began booking gigs, eventually playing
clubs and festivals around the world.
Taurey Butler, in Oscar Following a long stint with Chicago
Peterson’s shadow bassist/vocalist Eldee Young in Asia, But-
ler was invited to play at Montreal’s House
of Jazz. He’d been exploring the home-
town of Peterson, his greatest idol, and
finally decided to move there, playing the
club three nights a week for 10 years. He
also accompanied Juno Award-winning
vocalist Ranee Lee, and in 2011 released
his self-titled debut on Justin Time.
Now a prominent figure on the Mon-
treal jazz scene, Butler regularly plays the
city’s main clubs, including Dièse Onze
and Upstairs Bar and Grill, as well as the
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal,
and he recently accompanied saxophon-
ist Nicole Glover at the new Saint-Henri
jazz festival. Thanks to his innate swing,
breakneck speed, seemingly effortless
technique, and imaginative sourcing of
the music, Butler has been compared to
Peterson as well as McCoy Tyner and
other piano luminaries.
One of the Others’ official launch—two
sold-out sets at the intimate Upstairs on a
crisp autumn night—featured the person-
nel on the album: Michigan-born, Mon-
treal-based drummer Wali Muhammad
(Oliver Jones, Jeri Brown, the Metropoli-
tan Orchestra) and gifted Montreal bassist
Morgan Moore. “This is my first album in
10 years,” Butler noted from the band-
stand. Why so long? “I didn’t want to just
release another record without anything
Moving North
tying the songs together,” he said, launch-
ing full steam into the joyous title track.
“Like most people, I take the culture
and the roots of the things that I’ve learned
TAUREY BUTLER finds a home away from home with me wherever I go. This album was a
perfect follow-up to my first album,” Butler
later told JT. “I’ve had time to reflect and
M ontreal-based pianist Taurey

Butler, a native of East Orange, N.J.,
journeyed through Singapore, Thailand,
north in search of jobs, opportunity and
a more prosperous life. ... It’s me in the
lower left corner, heading north.”
get to know Montreal better, and those ex-
periences are what the album is based on.”
The funky “Sisyphean Task” elicited
drums, and horns before arriving at the Butler, 48, grew up listening to his father some headbanging from the audience.
piano, jazz, and his adopted city. On his play drums with an R&B band, and at “There were some good things too, starting
recent trio recording One of the Others age seven began classical piano training. over in Montreal,” Butler noted. Cole
(Justin Time), he tells the story of this At 14 he was handed an Oscar Peterson Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love”
journey through 11 tunes, both originals recording by his perceptive bandleader; took an angular, Monk-ish turn; the tender
and reimagined standards. It’s a story of listening to Peterson opened Butler’s ears “Laini’s Love,” written for Butler’s mother,
migration and relocation, of finding a new to what the piano could do. Moved and conveyed a depth of intensely felt emotion.
home away from home, and of Butler’s intrigued, he began digging into jazz “Without you, this is just a rehearsal,”
roots as an African American. harmony, melody, and solo improvisation. said Butler, thanking the crowd be-
The album art, created by Butler, After graduating from Dartmouth—where fore closing with the vigorous “On the
demonstrates this as well. “I don’t have he studied Japanese, majored in electrical Natch.” Heading out, I caught up with a
that artistic technique, but I knew the engineering, and spent countless hours in Swiss audience member, all smiles. What
SHARONNE COHEN
concept I wanted on the cover,” he told JT. the practice room—Butler returned to New did he appreciate about the concert?
Alluding to The Migration Series by Jacob Jersey to hone his craft. And after playing “They played so together,” he said. “So
Lawrence, it depicts “the migration of a jam session in New York, garnering imaginative and inspired.”
Black people from the southern U.S. to the attention for his dexterity and lyricism, —sharonne cohen
Farewells
Mick Goodrick of complications from hereditary
kidney disease and COVID-19 at
Virginia Mason Medical Center in
Seattle. He was 68.
Terry Woodson, a trombonist,

arranger, librarian, copyist, con-
ductor, and record producer, died
at his home in Studio City, Calif.,
on Oct. 19. He was 80. Woodson
joined the Don Ellis band in 1966
David Ornette Cherry
and recorded four albums with the
innovative trumpeter/bandleader, jazz tradition with classical and
including 1967’s Electric Bath. After various African and world music
leaving Ellis in 1968, he conducted traditions, died Nov. 20 in a Lon-
and toured with the orchestras of don hotel room from an asthma
attack following a performance
at the Barbican Theatre. He was
64. The son of trumpeter/com-
poser Don Cherry, he was a dev-
otee of his father’s “Multikulti”
conception of music and his own
work encompassed development
of that fusion in its own right, as
well as frequent tributes to his
father (and his mother, pianist
Carletta Hewitt-Cherry). Indeed,
Terry Woodson (2nd from L) with Cherry’s final performance on
the Henry Mancini Orchestra the night of his passing was a
during a 1972 TV broadcast tribute concert to his father,
performed with Kahil El’Zabar’s
Percy Faith and Henry Mancini; Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
Mick Goodrick, a guitarist and teacher who was arguably the most produced recordings for Diane
influential guitar pedagogue in the history of jazz, died Nov. 16 at his home Schuur, Diana Krall, Monica Louise Tobin, a singer of the
in Boston, Mass. He was 77. The cause of death was complications from Mancini, Linda Ronstadt, and big-band era who married trum-
COVID-19; he had also recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. others; but spent the bulk of his peter Harry James in 1935 and
An accomplished performer in his own right, Goodrick worked with John career—19 years—conducting for began working with his onetime
Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette, toured with Gary Burton and Pat Frank Sinatra, Jr. employer Benny Goodman four
Metheny and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, and briefly years later, died Nov. 26 in
worked with the Woody Herman Orchestra. He found his true calling, how- Anthony Ortega, a California-based Carrollton, Texas. She was 104.
ever, as an educator. He was a faculty member at both Berklee College of clarinetist, saxophonist, and flutist After becoming a mother, Tobin
Music and the New England Conservatory—where his students included who worked with artists including retired from music for sever-
John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, Rale Micic, Lage Lund, Wolfgang Lionel Hampton, Paul Bley, Tony al years but made a striking
Muthspiel, and Julian Lage—and he reached countless other pupils Bennett, Quincy Jones, and Frank comeback at the 1962 Newport
through his 1987 book The Advancing Guitarist. Students affectionally Zappa, died Oct. 30 of complica- Jazz Festival, which led to a
referred to him as “Mr. Goodchord.” tions from pneumonia at a hospital relaunch of her career as she
in Encinitas, Calif. He was 94. Or- and her new husband, clarinet-
tega was still performing regularly ist Peanuts Hucko, opened a
Kelly Sill, a composer, educator, DownBeat, contributed to numer- at Mr. Peabody’s Bar and Grill in jazz club in Denver and toured
and go-to bassist on the Chicago ous publications, and taught at the Encinitas just two months before worldwide with the Glenn Miller
jazz scene for more than three New School in Manhattan for 26 his passing. Orchestra and the Pied Piper
decades, died on Sept. 28. He was years, died Oct. 4 at his home in Quartet, among others.
COURTESY OF BRUCE KLAUBER (MANCINI ORCHESTRA)
70. Sill worked with artists such Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 83 and had Michael G. Nastos, a jazz journalist
as Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, been dealing with complications and radio DJ in Michigan best Andrew Speight, an Austra-
Art Farmer, Eddie Jefferson, Clark of diabetes and COVID-19. In 2021, known for his long-running shows lian-born saxophonist and
Terry, Cedar Walton, and Herb Ellis, Smith donated his collection of on WCBN-FM and WEMU-FM, educator who moved to America
and appeared on more than 50 10,000 jazz albums to the University died Nov. 5. He was 70 and had in the early 1990s, collaborated
recordings as either a sideman or of Nevada, Las Vegas. been struggling with multiple with Wynton Marsalis, and
a leader. health problems. eventually became a teacher at
Chuck Deardorf, a bassist and ed- San Francisco State University,
Arnold Jay Smith, a jazz writer, ucator who headed the jazz depart- David Ornette Cherry, a multi-in- died Dec. 1 when his car was hit
educator, and archivist who ment at Seattle’s Cornish College strumentalist, composer, and by two trains near his home in
worked as East Coast editor for of the Arts for 14 years, died Oct. 9 poet who worked to merge the- Burlingame, Calif. He was 58. JT

CHRONOLOGY
Highlights from the Williams catalog
Joe Williams at the 1967

Newport Jazz Festival
the singer’s repertoire until his death in
1999 at age 80.
The critical discourse around Wil-
liams during his life often circled around
this duality. As late as 1986, Whitney
Beyond the Blues

Balliett could write in The New Yorker
that Williams was in fact two equally
accomplished singers: “One is the famous
blues singer, and the other is the almost
JOE WILLIAMS was famous for one thing, but he did a lot more unknown ballad singer.”
BY MARK STRYKER One reason Williams remains typecast
is that most of his finest recordings—five
LPs taped for RCA Victor between 1963
E veryone knows that Joe Williams sang

the hell out of the blues, but do you
know what else he sang the hell out of?
though it wasn’t a strength. Williams
could do more things as well or better
than just about any other postwar male
and 1965 and a glorious one-off for Solid
State with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz
Orchestra from 1966—are hidden in plain
Everything. jazz singer. sight. They capture Williams’ effulgent
Williams’ expansive wheelhouse Yet his identity remains inextricably bass-baritone at its peak of expression
© BURT GOLDBLATT/CTSIMAGES
encompassed romantic ballads, songs of tied to the blues hits that defined his six- and best document his versatility, swing,
heartbreak, swinging standards, bossa and-a-half-year tenure with the Count storytelling, and sublime balance of gutsy
novas, and boogaloo beats. He could im- Basie Orchestra, from 1954-1961: “Every power, restrained elegance, and taste.
provise like a stylish horn player or phrase Day I Have the Blues,” “Alright, Okay, You These records have a checkered past in
down the middle like a sophisticated pop Win,” and “The Comeback.” These num- terms of falling in and out of print, though
singer. He was even a credible scat singer, bers and others like them were integral to all made it to CD at some point and all are
1 0 JA Z Z T I M E S . C OM // Ja nuary/ Fe b rua ry 2 02 3
available via streaming services. Anyone On “A Good Thing,” note the patience
looking for a deeper understanding of with which Williams sings, “I’m glad that FURTHER LISTENING
Williams’ art should start here. loneliness and heartache taught me just
Chicago-raised, Williams was 36 but how much I needed you.” He stretches
still a work in progress when Basie rescued out the word “needed” with an extra dol-
him from obscurity. Despite the success lop of vibrato that intensifies its meaning.
of his 1955 debut LP with the band, Count While there are no formal blues on
Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Verve), Jump for Joy, the next studio date, Me
there’s still a bluntness to his blues elo- and the Blues, throws Williams back into
cutions, and his early ballads often come the briar patch with charismatic results.
across as one-dimensional. You can chart These RCA records were first-class ma-
a steady progression toward more subtle jor-label projects: the cream of New York
expression through his Roulette LPs with studio players (Clark Terry, Phil Woods,
strings, among them Osie Johnson, etc.),
Sings About You! top arrangers like
By 1963,
(1959) and Sentimental Nelson and Jones,
Have a Good Time
& Melancholy (1960). and beautiful engi- (Roulette)
Williams’ voice,
By 1963, Wil- neering by Ray Hall
liams had matured. in resonant Webster Ernie Wilkins arranged this rewarding
all-standards date in 1961 that includes a
always as full-
His voice, always Hall. The steady stunning version of “Old Folks.”
as full-bodied and hand of veteran
bodied as a
opulent as a Barolo, producer George
now boasts a balanced Avakian is palpable.
Barolo, boasted
suppleness in the fin- Avakian conceived
ish that translates to a At Newport ’63 to
a balanced
larger dramatic range. showcase a casual
His vibrato, coloring, vibe. Williams,
suppleness in the
and accents are more frisky and loose,
carefully modulated, fronts a hot four-
more attuned to the horn band with stars
nuances of a song’s ƇĢĆŉĂ͠ like Coleman Haw-
layered emotions. His kins that leans into a
pitch is more cen- blues-dominated set
tered, his swing even more authoritative. for an appreciative audience.
Absorbing Basie’s less-is-more aesthetic The final RCA records, The Song Is
taught Williams the value of understate- You and The Exciting Joe Williams, return Something Old, New and Blue
ment. The singer never forces the issue. to the studio with a new producer (Jim (Solid State)
Jump for Joy (1963), his tremendous Foglesong) and arranger (Frank Hunter).
A reunion with arranger Thad Jones in 1967
RCA debut with big-band arrangements The songs are ballads and standards
with a studio band and strings. Not on the
by Oliver Nelson and Jimmy Jones, opens with a beat. Williams is in strong voice, level of the LP with Thad & Mel but still a
ecstatically. Williams glides through a but commercial motivations are more gem with more standards in the mix.
swinging “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” on the surface, especially on The Song Is
with the relaxed confidence of a man in You, which goes all in with strings and
a hand-tailored suit. Dig his call-and-re- occasional vocal choir. The Exciting was
sponse exchanges with the band in the Williams’ own favorite RCA date. Some-
second chorus, where he gradually spreads times it lives up to its title—he generates
his melodic wings before soaring into a awe-inspiring swing on “This Is the
resplendent rise-and-fall variation in quar- Life”—but Hunter’s Nelson Riddle/Billy
ter-note triplets on the bridge. May-flavored charts are overly gussy and
Williams had an ear for worthy, ne- there are a couple duds aimed at airplay.
glected songs. There are several on Jump Presenting Joe Williams and Thad
for Joy, including Helen Bliss’ obscure 1941 Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra is a
torch song “I Went Out of My Way,” which classic. Jones’ inspired arrangements
receives a bittersweet, 2-a.m. reading à la are full of exhilarating details like the
Sinatra. “A Good Thing” and “She Doesn’t slithery sax section soli on “It Don’t
Know” were written for Williams by Mean a Thing.” The band roars, and Havin’ a Good Time
Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal—adult love Williams roars back on the mostly blues (Hyena)
songs that he sings with the knowing air and blues-flavored material. Best of all
Williams in superb voice with his grooving
of not only a man who has been around is a moving reading of Ellington’s de trio—Junior Mance, Bob Cranshaw, Mickey
the block in life but also an artist able to facto spiritual “Come Sunday” that finds Roker—and guest Ben Webster at a club in
transform his experiences and emotions Williams reaching deep into his soul to Providence, R.I., in 1964. (Released in 2005.).
via craft into art. That’s the ballgame. create a masterpiece. JT
Ja nuary / Fe brua ry 202 3 // JA Z Z T I M E S . C OM 1 1
BEFORE & AFTER
Sikivie and drummer Greg Hutchin-
son, Diehl opens the recital with seven
originals that refract and interrogate raw
materials harvested from an expansive
field of influence: a Bach-to-Ravel notion
of the Euro-canon, church hymns, stride,
bebop, the blues. He ends it with idiomati-
cally apropos interpretations of repertoire
by role models John Lewis and Roland
Hanna, and—foreshadowing his engage-
ment with Sorey—a frisky deconstruction
of Prokofiev’s “March from Ten Pieces for
Piano, Op. 12,” followed by a meditative
turn through Philip Glass’ minimalist
“Piano Etude No. 16.”
Diehl entered Glass’ musical world in
2014, when the composer invited him
to participate in a Brooklyn Academy of
Music concert comprising all 20 of his
piano etudes. “Many times I had doubts
about whether my interest in this music
was valid,” Diehl says of this early foray
into transidiomatic expression. “A mentor
even asked why I’m trying to play classical
music, why I’m not with the soldiers of
jazz. Well, I love jazz. But everything that I
do is influenced by and incorporates all of
my interests in music; it doesn’t have to be
restricted to a specific approach or style or
genre or idiom.”
He adds that interacting with Sorey has
“solidified” this predisposition.“Tyshawn
has been a revelation,” Diehl says. “He does
so many different things on an extremely
high level: serial music, 12-tone. His capac-
ity for music, the things he understands
and knows, is endless. His mind works in
unique ways. For me, the goal is to play
any written material and impart such an
organic feeling that it sounds improvised,
Aaron Diehl
and to improvise music with a structure, a
form, and a sense of direction that sounds
written. When I hear Tyshawn play—when
I hear all of his pieces—I hear that. I feel the
The eclectic pianist’s main mission: only connect greatest musicians, whether Bach or Char-
BY TED PANKEN lie Parker, did that at the highest level.”
Something close to what Diehl describes
transpires on Mesmerism, an in-studio
“M y overall goal is trying to figure

out how to connect the lan-
guages of jazz and classical to make an
fellow pan-genre explorer Tyshawn Sorey’s
expansively abstract-to-consonant 2022
releases Mesmerism (Yeros7) and The Off-
trio date with Matt Brewer recorded in
spring 2021. “Tyshawn called and said,
‘I want to do a trio record with you and
interesting and engaging performance, Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi). As Matt,’” Diehl recalls. “‘Can we rehearse a
and also develop my own voice,” Aaron Diehl remarked on Zoom from his Harlem day before the recording?’ I said, ‘I want to
Diehl told me when I first wrote about him apartment before listening to the 11 selec- be prepared.’ He said, ‘That’s okay. We’ll
in 2010. “Why limit yourself to just playing tions that comprise his first Before & After: just play tunes.’ He came by my place with
something here and something there? It’s “I’m interested in the jazz language as a Matt, and started to dictate arrangements
all gold.” continuum—threading together its evo- of ‘Autumn Leaves’ and tunes by Paul Mo-
That the 37-year-old pianist has refined lution as a continual, interrelated stream tian and Muhal Richard Abrams: ‘We’ll
and expanded that statement of purpose is of development to create a sound that’s play the first eight twice and then the B is
MARIA JARZYNA
evident on three recent albums—as leader neither old or new, but simply a landscape half time, and then the last eight is double
on The Vagabond, from 2020 (Diehl’s third where we can all communicate.” time,’ and so on. I spent half the night try-
for Mack Avenue), and as sideman on Joined on The Vagabond by bassist Paul ing to make sure I had the right roadmap
for the recording next morning. I thought not just an abstraction of it. Random guess: orchestras. People lose their mind when
Tyshawn did that on purpose. He knows Friedrich Gulda? it’s different. I had a very bizarre review in
me well enough now to know that I like to Providence, Rhode Island, some years ago
have a handle on things, and his whole ap- No, but you’re on the right continent. about how my cadenzas ruined Gershwin’s
proach was, ‘No, we’re just going to listen John Taylor? Let me keep listening. I’m masterpiece. My whole thing, again, is
to each other. We have our structure, and thinking of Michel Camilo, though he’s that I consider it a starting point for where
we’ll see what happens.’ not European. Or Stefano Bollani. It’s Gershwin was trying to go. Maybe my
“Many musicians have varied interests, Stefano? [Laughs] cadenzas weren’t good. I can take that. But
but people tend to want to pigeonhole I don’t agree with the idea that because
them into doing a certain thing and that’s AFTER: I thought it might be a European something is written in the score, it has
it. The key—and the hard part—is how pianist familiar with European classical to be taken at face value, that it’s sacro-
you incorporate all your interests into an pianism and the whole jazz language. I sanct —especially when it comes to taking
organic entity.” couldn’t immediately guess Stefano be- improvisational liberties with cadenzas,
cause I don’t know his playing well enough. which was an integral part of European
I was introduced to him years ago through music until the 19th century. Some people
1. Earl Hines his duo stuff with Enrico Rava, and we might find it offputting for Stefano Bollani,
met five or six years ago when he came to a who is a fine pianist, to do that. I liked it.
“Heaven”
concert I was playing with Cécile McLo-
(Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington, New World). Hines, rin Salvant in Luxembourg. Then I heard
solo piano; Duke Ellington, composer. Recorded in 1975. Stefano play Rhapsody in Blue with Alan ̫͠ Geri Allen-Mary Lou
Gilbert and the [New York] Philharmo- Williams Collective
BEFORE: [30 seconds in] I have this album. nie Orchestra right before the pandemic,
“Gemini”
It’s Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington. [Pulls and started to check out his wor. I need to
out LP] I can’t remember what this tune is (Zodiac Suite Revisited, Mary). Allen, piano; Buster
called. One of the first Earl Hines solos I Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums; Mary Lou Williams,
learned was the break on “Beau Koo Jack,” composer. Recorded in 2003.
at Eric Reed’s suggestion, and I also played “Earl Hines seemed
“Weather Bird” with Dominic Farinacci BEFORE: [Two bars in] That’s “Gemi-
my first year of college. During those years, to break up the ni,” Mary Lou Williams. It’s Geri Allen
I listened to the recordings Hines made playing it. That’s the record that she did of
at the Village Vanguard with Coleman time between his the entire Zodiac. I know that record very
Hawkins and Roy Eldridge during the well. Let’s listen, because I haven’t heard it
1960s—it’s some of the most unique piano left hand and right in a little bit.
playing I’ve ever heard, very modernistic
sound and approach, so different from hand. But it was AFTER: I’ll add Geri Allen to the list of
the way he played in the 1920s. I always pianists—or musicians, regardless of in-
notice how Earl Hines seemed to break up just an illusion.” strument—whose playing is original from
the time between his left hand and right having such command of the foundations
hand. But it was just an illusion. The time of the language. With the language at your
is still there; he placed the syncopation to fingertips like that, there’s so much you
make it seem to be in another place. The investigate and study a lot more. can do. I mean, there’s not one Geri Allen
immediate word that comes to mind about I like the approach of establishing the record where I’m like, “Oh, she’s trying to
his playing is “angularity.” It’s kind of like theme and making it clear that this is be original.” It’s just her, and it’s so beauti-
climbing a mountain, where you’ll find Rhapsody in Blue and then venturing off ful. Geri was the crème de la crème.
rocks with rough edges and rocks with into another stratosphere. Rhapsody in When I heard this Mary Lou Williams
smoother edges. His piano playing is so Blue has become this iconic piece, but I album years ago, Geri was working with
kaleidoscopic: different colors, different don’t think Gershwin ever considered it or Father Peter O’Brien, who was Mary Lou’s
ways of using syncopation, displacement would have imagined it [being] considered manager. I heard this group play some of
of the beat, dynamics. He’s a very lyrical a masterpiece—he wrote it very quickly this music at Birdland, with Andrew Cy-
musician. As I say, he’s unique. Now I want when he was very young. Of course, the rille, Reggie Workman, and Oliver Lake.
to go in an Earl Hines rabbit hole! themes are incredible and memorable, but
the structure isn’t very defined. It’s a series That’s a different entity. This album is
of motifs interspersed with cadenzas. As Zodiac Suite Revisited from 2003, with
2. Stefano Bollani a result, a lot can be done in between the Buster Williams and Billy Hart, some
themes. Stefano didn’t even go into the time before the group you referenced,
“Rhapsody in Blue”
E-major theme right there. That first theme which recorded around 2010 for Intakt.
(Gershwin & More ... Live!, Philology). Bollani, piano; [sings it] was his springboard for variation Oh! I was thinking, “I know this is Geri,
Roberto Gatto, drums; George Gershwin, composer. and improvisation. It would have been but it sounds a little different.” I don’t
Recorded in 2002. cool to see what he’d do with the E-major know this record. I know Buster Williams
theme if they had transitioned into it. was one of Mary Lou’s favorite bassists.
BEFORE: This is obviously someone who I’ve had my own experiences play- “Gemini” is a very structural piece in
really knows the piece, inside and out. It’s ing cadenzas on Rhapsody in Blue with that you have an established Theme A,
BEFORE & AFTER
we’ll call it, those eight quarter notes. own sound and approach. With musicians played, I think this pianist is very familiar
Then there’s a very brief interlude before it like Hanna, Ron Carter and Grady Tate, with the music of the African diaspora.
goes into this boogie-woogie figure, which the possibilities are endless. It always has Abdullah Ibrahim?
is open—basically a C boogie-woogie. It’s to be done in taste. It’s a master class in
interesting to hear Geri play at this tempo; that kind of playing. It’s an American pianist, a bit older than
Mary Lou would play it a bit faster. But Ibrahim, but not that much.
I like the tempo that Geri chose, really Do you think Mozart could have envi- Keep playing. I know I’m probably wrong,
settling into it. Then it recapitulates to the sioned a bass solo like Ron Carter’s on but I’ll throw it out there: Andrew Hill?
beginning, da capo, whatever you want to this?
call it. Then there’s a coda at the end that It’s fascinating to think about Mozart or No, but you’re warm.
Geri played more abstractly, but included anyone who lived more than 200 years ago Is this person alive?
it in there. somehow being transplanted into this time
period, and hearing the music we’re playing Unfortunately, no.
and how we’re playing it. Everyone has their
̬͠ Sir Roland Hanna idea how it sounded, but nobody knows AFTER: Is it Muhal Richard Abrams? I
how it sounded. People say, “Bach has to be never heard this. It’s a certain kind of
“Elvira Madigan, Concerto No. 21 in
done like this, and this is the performance language, almost like Earl Hines—very
C Major K467”
practice.” I’m pretty convinced it’s nothing angular, but poetic at the same time. It’s
(Apres un Reve, Venus). Hanna, piano; Ron Carter, like we think it is. Certain elements proba- a very joyous song. I really like it. I don’t
bass; Grady Tate, drums; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, bly are there. But if Bach actually could play know the specific groove or rhythm—I’d
composer. Recorded in 2002. his own language in 2022, I think people have to ask Etienne Charles—but my
would be surprised at his flexibility—and
BEFORE: Mozart. That’s Roland Hanna with also the fact that he was a ridiculous
Grady Tate and Ron Carter. improviser. Use this QR code
to check out Zoom
AFTER: That’s a great album. Roland session video from
Hanna was incredibly lyrical, wonderful ̭͠ Muhal Richard Abrams the Before & After
sound, tone quality, knew how to dig in
“Afrisong” listening sessions.
and get into the groove, knew how to Accessible to JazzTimes mem-
really allow the piano to sing. Mozart’s (Afrisong, Whynot). Abrams, piano, composer. Recorded
bers only; if you’re interested
MARIA JARZYNA
melody is very strong, and you expand in 1974.

in membership, go to jazz-
upon that very strong theme. There’s not times.com/memberships.
much you have to add to it except your BEFORE: Just by the groove that’s being
has been in the jazz piano lexicon in the last
“People say, ‘Bach

50 years. He’s on the same level as Herbie
Hancock and Chick Corea. I joke to some
THE SOUND OF
SMOKE
of my colleagues about my admiration and
has to be done like adoration for these great pianists, but my
absolute disdain for the cult following that
this.’ I’m convinced they... Herbie, Chick, Brad Mehldau are
the only people they listen to. I couldn’t
it’s nothing like we imagine listening to this music as a 16-year-
old getting into jazz and being like, “Yeah,
think it is.” I want to play like that.” I feel you have to
be a mature listener to listen to these people
without being so influenced by it that you
immediate impression was someone who want to imitate them, and then you have no
understands the diaspora. That’s why I other context of how music is created. It’s
first thought of Abdullah Ibrahim, who’s as if your introduction to jazz is listening
from South Africa. to the Plugged Nickel recordings. Now that
I’ve hopefully grown a bit over the last 20
You played Muhal’s “Two Over One” on years, it’s much easier to listen to basically
the Mesmerism album. I wondered wheth- the entire catalog of Miles Davis—and that
er you had any thoughts on his music. quintet especially—in terms of understand-
Honestly, I’m still learning quite a bit. ing the references, how they’re thinking
AACM came to me quite late. Actually, and interacting with each other.
when Cécile got her first Grammy, I was
sitting next to Marcus Miller at lunch or What do you think of Keith Jarrett’s later
dinner. It was a weird scene; Johnny Depp work vis-a-vis the earlier records?
was behind us and everyone was trying to I think there’s much more abstraction later
get a picture. But Marcus was talking about on. I quite enjoy it. But one of my favorite
the AACM. I told him, “I’m not super-fa- Keith Jarrett albums is that solo album
miliar,” and he gave me some recommen- from around 2000 where he played “My
dations. I’d heard of some of the AACM Irish Rose,” which is very simple and con-
members, but hadn’t listened to much of templative. When I hear this other side,
that music. Now, especially through playing I’m very intrigued, like, “Wow, how did he
and talking with Tyshawn, I’ve dug deeper come up with that?”
into it. Aesthetically, it’s hard for me to
grasp some things. Muhal definitely for me
is much more accessible. ̯͠ Duke Ellington
“So”
̮͠ Keith Jarrett (Piano in the Foreground, Columbia). Ellington, piano,

composer; Aaron Bell, bass; Sam Woodyard, drums.
“Part III” Recorded in 1961.
(Budapest Concert, ECM). Jarrett, piano, composer.
Recorded in 2016. BEFORE: [Immediately] Ellington. It’s one
of those trio recordings he did in the ’50s,
BEFORE: I just listened to this, like, two I want to say. Definitely Sam Woodyard on
weeks ago. I don’t know the precise move- drums. I don’t know who’s on bass because
ment because they’re all titled Part 1, Part he used a few different bassists. Is it from
2. Is it from the Bordeaux Concert? Piano in the Foreground? The sound is
so identifiable. It’s almost alien. Elling-
No, this is the Budapest Concert. ton’s approach to piano was like nobody
It sounded very similar. else. Sometimes you have to listen to few
measures to get a grasp on the musician.
Well, both are from 2016. With Ellington, one note. Something about
Talk about an improviser of the highest or- his tone and approach. Very percussive ...
der. I’ve been playing a bit of The Well-Tem- I’m trying to find words to describe when
pered Clavier and I go to Keith’s recording I hear Ellington. Very dignified music.
sometimes to see how he approaches it. Exciting. JT
Also his Shostakovich. He’s so special in
terms of taking anything and really owning Read the rest of Aaron Diehl’s Before & After session,
it—and certainly in his free improvisations. including comments on music by Marcus Roberts, John www.SmokeSessionsRecords.com
www.Facebook.com/smokesessionsrecords
It’s astounding how influential Keith Jarrett Lewis, Hank Jones, and Dave Bryant, at jazztimes.com. © 2023 Smoke Sessions Records
OVERDUE OVATION
Brian Auger at the controls
“I took over Georgie

Fame’s three gigs a
night on M-1 organ,
one step up from
the funeral-parlor
model.”
includes rare and unreleased material from

the jazzy Brian Auger Piano Trio and the
R&B-oriented Steampacket. On top of
that, several Live Oblivion volumes and a
DJ/producer remix album of Auger materi-
al with jazzheads such as Kenny Dope and
King Britt will follow.
“The organ chose me, in a roundabout
way,” said Auger, who got into jazz as
a child listening to The Jazz Hour on
the American Armed Forces Network
Germany and began playing piano in his
teens at British clubs like Ronnie Scott’s.
“From Ronnie’s—a more traditional jazz
Brian Auger
club—I could walk a few feet and be at the
Flamingo, where R&B was going on and
people could dance. There were also ladies
and gentlemen there from Jamaica, so that
The U.K.’s designated Hammond man is still melting minds today music was part of the scene. Anyway, the
BY A.D. AMOROSI brothers who owned the Flamingo—one
big guy who’d stand outside and bellow,
‘Jazz till 5:30 a.m., guaranteed to wake you,’
O ne of the most generous aspects of

interviewing British-born Ham-
mond B-3 organist and electric pianist
with 1968’s “This Wheel’s on Fire,” penned
by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko).
Phrases such as “And then the Ham-
and one littler brother—had [organist]
Georgie Fame playing there on the regular.
Until he went on vacation, fell asleep on
Brian Auger—the toast of Swinging mond came in and rrrrrargh” and “I had the beach, got sunstroke, and had to stay
London’s soul-jazz scene and a musician this solo that went beedleldeledee” were in the hospital. Se the brothers asked me
who played with Tony Williams, Jimi common throughout Auger’s conversation, a favor: to take over Fame’s three gigs a
Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy executed in a musical, Brit-accented lilt night on M-1 organ, one step up from the
Williamson, and more—is that you need from his home-away-from-home in Los funeral-parlor model. At the same time I’m
not refer to his records to hear what they Angeles. When I mentioned to him that I’m playing piano down the road at The Roar-
sound like. Auger does it all for you in real from Philadelphia, he rattled off names of ing Twenties, another club. They paid my
time by impersonating the wheeze and Philly organists—Jimmy Smith, “Groove” cab fare to go back and forth. It was a mag-
whirr of his Hammond, to say nothing of Holmes, Jimmy McGriff—before yelling, nificent introduction to playing jazz organ
every other thwack of a drum or thrum of “Splendid!” in a live setting. The M-1? You could panic
a bassline. Loudly. Of course, you’ll have to make do with just looking at it, what with its switches and
To that cacophony, Auger—during what the recorded versions of those sounds, some dials. Still, I think I mastered it within 45
turned out to be one of the most pleasur- of which appear on the newly released box minutes of playing the beast.”
able two hours of this journalist’s career— set Far Horizons (Soul Bank), collecting The next thing you know, living as he
often added brash laughter while offering Auger’s early work with Driscoll and the did then in the west London neigborhood
a bird’s-eye tour of musical London in Trinity. That collection is just the begin- of Shepherd’s Bush and strolling through
the mid-’60s, while reminding me of what ning of a series of boxes scheduled well its outdoor marketplace, Auger came to
ELDE STEWART
led him to become one of that moment’s into 2023 that includes Complete Oblivion, a record store with an outdoor speaker.
biggest hitmakers (his band the Trinity which spotlights his fusion-y Oblivion Roaring through the midday air was Jimmy
with vocalist Julie Driscoll struck it big Express, and Auger Incorporated, which Smith’s then-new B-3 jamming Back at the
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The Steampacket: Rock Generation,

Volume 6: The Steampacket (Or the
First Supergroup)
(recorded in 1965, released 1970, BYG)
Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger & the

Trinity: Streetnoise
(Atco, 1969)
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express: A

Better Land
(RCA, 1971)
Passport and Brian Auger, Johnny

Griffin, Alexis Korner, Volker Kriegel,
Pete York: Doldinger Jubilee Concert
(Atlantic Germany, 1974)
Lenny White: Big City

Afro sure: Auger with famed (Nemperor, 1977)
partner Julie Driscoll (L) in 1968
Billy Cobham & Novecento: Drum n
Voice Vol. 3
(Soul Trade, 2010)
Chicken Shack on Blue Note. “Wrap that vocalists Long John Baldry and Rod
up!” yells Auger. “I was completely hooked.” Stewart) on the music in the Far Horizons The Brian Auger Piano Trio: Full
Even though Auger had already won box, psychedelicized rock had infiltrated Circle Live at Bogies
(Freestyle, 2018)
awards for “New Star” and “Jazz Piano” the world of Auger and the Trinity. Their
in 1964’s Melody Maker readers’ poll, he 1967 debut Open was a free, funky mix of
began including R&B and blues in his slimy swamp blues, hard-jamming jazz, Streetnoise, which features everything
sound as part of the Brian Auger Trinity and fuzz-toned exotica on instrumentals from art rock to wonky renditions of
(then including John McLaughlin). Then he such as “Isola Nate”—and that was before “Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)”
abandoned piano altogether for the B-3 on getting to Driscoll’s clarion-clear and from the bare-assed musical Hair, a
a 1968 album with Sonny Boy Williamson, emotive freak-folkishness on several Au- stirringly emotional take on Laura Nyro’s
Don’t Send Me No Flowers, featuring saxo- ger originals, as well as Donovan’s “Season “Save the Country,” and a molten B-3
phonists Joe Harriott and Alan Skidmore, of the Witch.” burner from Auger, “Indian Rope Man,”
and guitarist Jimmy Page. “Suddenly there Of incorporating Driscoll’s sound into that could still melt your ears from all of
were songs I was writing for the organ that his own at that time, Auger recalled how its dynamics, soul, and innovation.
would’ve sounded stupid on the piano,” he the British female vocalist “sung a lot of The flame that Auger and Driscoll
said. “And vice versa. It just happened that Aretha Franklin then, and was in love kindled together didn’t last long after
by then, I was writing more for the B-3.” with Nina Simone. She would really let fly. that, as the vocalist went on to work
Auger talked about how the harmonic Really felt the pathos and emotion in every with other jazz leaders such as her future
rush of the Hammond offered a perfect lyric. I always picked people who sang husband Keith Tippett and Carla Bley,
vibe for composing as well as for soloing, and played with gusto, and what Julie, and the organist subsequently dove into
a sound he said was “like Jimmy Smith, the Trinity, and I did really took off like a the progressive-jazz fusion of Oblivion
with this sort of bravado and swing.” rocket.” Express. “But it burned bright. Really
By the time he started working with Reputations were sealed on those first bright,” Auger said. “I’d like to think that
Julie Driscoll (an improvisational singer recordings. Auger, Driscoll, and the everything from the Soul Bank boxes to
who’d initially been part of Auger’s Trinity expanded their minds and their whatever new music I’m doing now all
Steampacket revue/ensemble with fellow progressive vision with the double album contains that flame.” JT
The Year in Review 2022:
CRITICS’
PICKS
We calculated our top 40 new releases and top 10

historical/reissue recordings of 2022 based on year-
end lists by our writers. They were asked to choose
őĂä̟̞ÙäŉőĢäūŅäěäÁŉäŉÁĢàƈŪäÙäŉőĂĆŉőĩŅĆÚÁě
titles—i.e., albums and box sets consisting primarily
of music recorded 10 or more years ago.
ĩŉäääÁÚĂŪĩőäŅΎŉÙÁěěĩő͡ŪĆŉĆőUÁŹŹĆġäŉ͠Úĩġ͠
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ÁĢàaĩŪ̟̟̠̞̠̠͠͡ūäŅääěĆúĆÙěä͠ĩġäàĆŉÚŉġÁűĂÁŪä
ŉěĆłłäàőĂŅĩŖúĂőĂäÚŅÁÚėŉ͡ĂĩūäŪäŅ͡ÁŉĩƆÚĆÁě
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BLURBS BY DAN BILAWSKY,

PHILIP BOOTH, SHAUN BRADY,
THOMAS CONRAD, MORGAN
ENOS, STEVE GREENLEE, MARTIN
JOHNSON, ALLEN MORRISON,
MAC RANDALL, BRITT ROBSON,
MIKE SHANLEY, MARK STRYKER,
JEFF TAMARKIN, CHRIS J.
WALKER, AND MICHAEL J. WEST
IMMANUEL WILKINS
Immanuel Wilkins
The 7th Hand (Blue Note)
I
mmanuel Wilkins’ Omega was one the four members of Wilkins’ quartet, Motian, and Horace Silver) and cohorts
of the most decorated jazz albums of in his words, “become vessels.” This (pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Matt Brew-
2022. When a debut recording hits the state of selflessness leads to extremes of er) reveal clues as to how he stays alert
street with that kind of impact, it creates shattering crisis and liberating catharsis. amid deep relaxation. We have no choice
high expectations for the follow-up. The Such a testament could only achieve its but to follow suit. B.R.
7th Hand exceeds those expectations. final fulfillment by risking everything
Wilkins’ extraordinary talent transcends and passing through fire. With “Lift” 3. Billy Drummond & Freedom
technical virtuosity on alto saxophone. as culmination, The 7th Hand becomes of Ideas Valse Sinistre (Cellar)
Somehow, at the age of 24, he is an artist overwhelming. T.C. For his first album as a leader in 26 years,
of profound spiritual depth. The 7th the drummer’s drummer enlists saxo-
Hand is a step beyond Omega because 2. Tyshawn Sorey Trio phonist Dayna Stephens,
it moves from social and historical con- Mesmerism (Yeros7) pianist Micah Thomas,
cerns (important as they are) to universal What happens when a musician re- and bassist Dezron Doug-
truths of human striving and aspiration. nowned for his composing decides to do las for adventurous music
It is a suite in seven parts. The first six a “standards” album? ranging from an urgent,
constitute a diverse, powerful statement. When that musician is bracing take on Jackie
Because Wilkins and his pianist Micah drummer Tyshawn So- McLean’s “Little Melonae” to a haunting
Thomas are wildly creative improvisers, rey, you get a captivating version of the ballad “Laura.” Drummond
those first six movements, if they stood blend of graceful revelry aptly salutes a pair of musical heroes on
alone, would comprise a Top Ten album. and subtly conceptual his “Changes for Trane & Monk” and
But the seventh movement, “Lift,” makes improvisation. Sorey’s turns in a soprano-led version of Grachan
ROG WALKER
The 7th Hand something apart. It is 26 choices of material (from “Autumn Moncur’s twisty, rarely played “Franken-
minutes of hell and heaven in which Leaves” to Muhal Richard Abrams, Paul stein.” P.B.
4. Cécile McLorin Salvant 6. Redman Mehldau McBride recordings. All are among
Ghost Song (Nonesuch) Blade LongGone (Nonesuch) the top jazz albums of
Cécile McLorin Salvant has diligently LongGone ultimately isn’t about the 2022. Chapel is favored
redefined the popular concept of a jazz dexterity of the individual. Like the two here because it beautifully
singer, and Ghost Songs previous efforts by this juxtaposes two dissimi-
is her most spectacular esteemed quartet, it’s a lar languages of lyricism
expansion yet. She goes textbook display of what (Lloyd’s and Bill Frisell’s), and because
beyond genre both in happens when a group of Thomas Morgan, who used to be the best
her spectacular cover of musicians—each a leader young bass player in jazz, is now the best
Kate Bush’s “Wuther- in his own right—un- bass player, period. T.C.
ing Heights” and in her derstand and trust one
range of source material on other tracks, another enough to let the music go where 9. Wadada Leo Smith, Jack
which feature field hollers, youth choirs, it must. J.T. DeJohnette & Vijay Iyer A Love
solo piano, and a cappella vocals. With Sonnet for Billie Holiday (TUM)
McLorin Salvant, jazz singing has gone 7. Jakob Bro/Joe Lovano Once Set aside the title; this music has little
from an exercise in wistful nostalgia to Around the Room: A Tribute to to do with the legendary vocalist. What
an investigation of the polyglot future. Paul Motian (ECM) we have here instead lives on the highest
M.J. Convening an esteemed assortment plane of interplay and
of their fellow Paul Motian associates, intuition while balancing
5. Mary Halvorson Amaryllis guitarist Jakob Bro and saxophonist Joe structure with freedom.
(Nonesuch) Lovano make their co-led Trumpeter Smith has
With each release, Mary Halvorson’s debut with a salute to the been doing his life’s great-
vision expands while her focus becomes late drummer/composer. est (and most prolific)
ever more precise. Her Moody and, at times, me- work in his golden years,
latest sprawls over two lodious, the predominant- and this superior outing teams him with
separate discs: compan- ly original program takes two kindred master craftsmen, key-
ion piece Belladonna cues from the honoree’s boardist Iyer and drummer DeJohnette.
features the Mivos String fluid mindset while acknowledging his Compelling and surprising from start to
Quartet, while Amaryllis penchant for unusual configurations with finish. S.G.
combines that ensemble a septet boasting three bassists and two
with an incredible new sextet. A singular drummers. D.B. 10. Julian Lage View with a
guitarist, Halvorson weaves era-spanning Room (Blue Note)
jazz traditions in with corrosive rock, 8. Charles Lloyd Trios: Chapel Leading a trio joined on
avant-funk, and chamber writing, all re- (Blue Note) seven tracks by similarly
flected through a funhouse mirror warp. Charles Lloyd, at 84, is still a seeker. He restless guitar explorer
What’s most remarkable about Amaryllis has conceived a new ensemble format, the Bill Frisell, Lage ap-
is the way that voice is embodied through drummerless trio, and expressed it in three plies his gorgeous tone,
the full ensemble. S.B. personnel configurations on three new impeccable rhythmic
17. Melody 21. Ches 25. Marta

Gardot and Smith Inter- Sanchez SAAM
Philippe Pow- pret It Well (Spanish Amer-
ell Entre eux (Pyroclastic) ican Art Muse-
Deux (Decca) um) (Whirlwind)
22. Myra Mel-
18. Wadada ford’s Fire and 26. Miguel Ze-
Leo Smith The Water Quintet nón Música de
Emerald Duets For the Love of las Américas
(TUM) Fire and Water (Miel)
(RogueArt)
19. Natalie 27. Ron Carter
Cressman & 23. Danilo Finding the
Ian Faquini Pérez Featur- Right Notes (In
Auburn Whis- ing the Global & Out)
per (GroundUP) Messengers
Crisálida (Mack 28. James
20. The Bad Avenue) Brandon Lewis
Plus The Bad Quartet MSM
Plus (Edition) 24. John Molecular Sys-
Scofield John tematic Music
Scofield (ECM) Live (Intakt)
feel, and intriguing note choices to a set Sara Caswell. The results—especially on a astounding solos by McBride, Warren
of original compositions drawing from mesmerizing version of Nick Drake’s “River Wolf on vibes, and Steve Wilson on alto
jazz, blues, rock, and Americana. The Man”—redefine the adjectives “classy” and and soprano. Swing lives. A.M.
shimmering sounds and interplay with “gorgeous.” M.R.
bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave 15. Samara Joy Linger Awhile
King (the Bad Plus) grow more entrancing 13. Terri Lyne Carrington New (Verve)
with each listen. The slow-burning “Echo” Standards Vol. 1 (Candid) Samara Joy’s sophomore album authen-
and churning, busy “Word for Word” are What’s that they say about women having ticates the meteoric 22-year-old singer’s
among many standout tracks. P.B. to work twice as hard? For the conceit of prowess and seemingly natural style that
New Standards—compositions by women prompts associations with Billie Holiday,
11. JD Allen Americana Vol. 2 from all across the jazz spectrum—to fly, Sarah Vaughan, and
(Savant) the material couldn’t be Dinah Washington. Her
lIt’s all there in JD Allen’s profound open- any less than stellar. It lush, unpretentious alto
ing salvo on “Up South.” His tenor saxo- delivers in spades. But so doesn’t require a great
phone sound, as chiseled as John Henry, do Carrington, her core song to excel, but her
moans with the cry of the quintet, and the myriad warmth, sensitivity, and
blues: the manifestation special guests who give stalwart band accompani-
of a sweeping aesthetic, transcendent treatments to ment take command for well-known stan-
contemporary yet rooted works by Gretchen Parlato, Brandee Young- dards “Guess Who I Saw Today,” “Misty,”
in the jazz tradition and er, Abbey Lincoln, and Marilyn Crispell. “I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You)” and
the cultural memory of It’s just volume 1, thank God. M.J.W. “’Round Midnight.” C.J.W.
the Great Migration that
brought Allen’s family to Detroit. Charlie 14. Christian McBride & Inside 16. Miles Okazaki Thisness (Pi)
Hunter, Gregg August, and Rudy Royston Straight Live at the Village For Thisness Miles Okazaki utilized the
lay down sturdy grooves. Allen communes Vanguard (Mack Avenue) Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, in
with the ancestors, the blues their com- The personification of high-intensi- which the final unfolded “picture” creates
mon language. M.S. ty, straight-ahead postbop, no group a unique image with several unrelated
in jazz swings harder, thanks to the sections. Here, musical
12. Dave Stryker As We Are elite rhythm section of McBride, Peter transitions come both
(Strikezone) Martin on piano and radically and gradually;
On which, 34 albums into his career, the Carl Allen on drums. a loose, flowing passage
still-underappreciated guitarist goes all This set, recorded in gives way to a 4/4 groove
chamber-jazz on us, 2014 during the same or Matt Mitchell wedges a
with help from pianist two-week engagement keyboard melody in a place where it didn’t
Julian Shore, bassist as the Grammy-winning seem possible. Like his visual inspiration,
John Patitucci, drummer Christian McBride Trio Okazaki’s Charlie Christian model Gibson
Brian Blade, and a string Live at the Village Vanguard, showcases ES-175 guitar unleashes a tapestry of ideas
quartet led by violinist originals by three members and features that surprise and captivate. M.S.
29. Makaya 33. Eliane 37. The

McCraven In Elias Quietude Headhunters
These Times (Candid) Speakers in
(International the House
Anthem) (Ropeadope)
34. Jon
30. Yellow- Irabagon 38. Snarky
jackets Par- Rising Sun Puppy Em-
allel Motion (Irabbagast) pire Central
(Mack Avenue) (GroundUP)
35. Luke
31. Joel Ross Stewart’s 39. DOMi &
The Parable of Silt Trio JD Beck NOT
the Poet (Blue The Bottom TiGHT (Blue
Note) (Cuneiform) Note)
32. Keith Jar- 36. Ivo Perel- 40. Janel Lep-

rett Bordeaux man/Matthew pin Ensemble
Concert (ECM) Shipp Fruition Volcanic Ash
(ESP-Disk’) (Cuneiform)

TO P 10 H
IS
TO
RI
CA
L
RE
LEA
SES
Charles Mingus
HANS HARZHEIM
The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s

(Resonance)
it also happens to be just part of a legendary
concert in the free-jazz great’s career—his
triumphant return to New York after years
in Europe and the Midwest. Only a third
of that performance has ever been issued
before (and that third is quite rare), making
the sublimely remastered Return Concert a
monumental affair. M.J.W.
3. Albert Ayler Revelations: The

Complete ORTF 1970 Fondations
Maeght Recordings (Resonance)
To hear Albert Ayler is to behold genius
without being beaten over the head by it; he
How appropriate that for his centennial year, talk-song, befriends chaos in conversation
the big man should come out on the top with clarity. And five other songs, the
of our annual poll. Take one listen to this shortest one 10:14, besiege, beseech, regale,
sprawling 1972 live set and you’ll know it’s relax, heal, hail, and shout for joy at the
the right call; Mingus’ whole sextet (with sheer blues of it all. B.R.
Charles McPherson, Roy Brooks, Bobby
Jones, John Foster, and Jon Faddis) is an 5. Miles Davis The Bootleg Series
unstoppable force. That Columbia Records Vol. 7: That’s What Happened
recorded the shows and never released a 1982-1985 (Columbia/Legacy)
second beggars belief. Be glad yet again that Moving beyond the formative periods
we live in the age of Resonance. M.R. covered in the series’ first six volumes (the
may have been a titanic figure, but his music

never gives you the impression of an arteest.
The four-CD live Revelations is an excellent
gateway into Ayler’s universe; even when
compositions like “Birth of Mirth” grow
unwieldy, the music is charged with imagi-
nation, play, and superlative love. M.E.
4. William Parker Universal

Tonality (Centering/AUM Fidelity)
Parker has become the treasured godfather
of “avant-garde jazz” specifically for phe-
2. Cecil Taylor The Complete, nomenal events like this December 2002 ’50s-’70s), Vol. 7 lands on the early ’80s,
Legendary, Live Return Concert concert, a two-hour journey involving 17 when Miles was creating the music that
at the Town Hall NYC, November musicians. The 31-minute “Cloud Texture would become the albums Star People, Decoy
4, 1973 (Oblivion) (Death Has Died Today),” rich with Asian and You’re Under Arrest. As always, he was
“Autumn/Parade,” a previously unreleased strings and African American horns, nar- looking for something new and, surrounded
88-minute Taylor quartet performance, rated from a Native American perspective by ace players, he proves that he’s still point-
would be thrilling enough on its own. But via Leena Conquest’s globally soulful ing the way for others to follow. J.T.
6. 7. 8.
6. Ella Fitzgerald Ella at the Hollywood Bowl: The Irving Berlin Songbook (Verve/UMe)
9. 10.
7. Jack McDuff Live at Parnell’s (Soul Bank)
8. Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas: Deluxe Edition (Craft/Concord)
9. Hasaan Ibn Ali Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings (Omnivore)
10. Ornette Coleman Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums (Craft/Concord)
L to R: Eric Revis, John Escreet, and Damion Reid
to
Pianist JOHN ESCREET steps out

with a trio for the ﬁrst time
By Morgan Enos
M
ore than a decade after issu- of what was happening in my musical life
ing his debut LP, John Escreet at that moment in time,” he tells JazzTimes
finally felt prepared for a rite plainly. “Which would happen to be me
of passage: recording his first trio album. delving into a trio format with Eric Revis
On this year’s Seismic Shift—unlike on and Damion Reid.” But a tossed-off insight
his past six offerings as a leader—there about an older album provides even more
wasn’t a guitar, saxophone or trumpet to insight into what makes this guy tick: “I
accompany Escreet. Instead, the English will not record some s—t before it’s ready.
pianist was solely bolstered by Eric Revis’ I refuse. I will not do it.”
woody, booming upright bass and the This declaration speaks to both Escreet’s
supple snap of Damion Reid’s drums. Just smoldering intensity—which is bracing
like Ahmad Jamal on At the Pershing, Bill even through a Zoom window—and his
Evans on Sunday at the Village Vanguard, commendable restraint as an artist.
and Duke Ellington on Money Jungle, “That’s very respectable and mature
there was nowhere in the soundfield for to wait until you have something to say,”
Escreet to hide. Sánchez notes. “If you’re a good jazz
Not that he would need to: several of his musician, it’s so easy to get a trio together,
key collaborators agree that he could have go into the studio, and play some tunes. A
done this earlier. lot of people do that, and I think it dilutes
“I would have argued that John was the art form.”
ready a long time ago for a trio record,” Because of Escreet’s needle-sharp
says saxophonist David Binney, who ac- intent, top-tier rhythm section, and in-
companied Escreet on his first five records spired compositions and improvisations,
as a leader and put him in his bands. “John Seismic Shift doesn’t dilute anything
has had the goods for a long time,” says one iota. Rather, it’s a terrific entry in
drummer Antonio Sánchez, his longtime the pantheon of luminous, challenging
employer as part of his band, Migration. jazz-piano-trio albums.
“This is one of those moments where you
have to just do it,” Reid adds. “Who knows MANCHESTER TO MANHATTAN
how long he would have felt ready? But he Not bad for an artist who emerged from
seems like he’s comfortable playing with a nonmusical family. Escreet was born
me, and we have a connection musically.” in 1984 in Doncaster, England. Despite
Let’s hear it from the man himself: not being musically inclined, his parents
TERESA LEE
What compelled him to wait until now? were supportive; they enrolled him in
“It was an honest and accurate reflection piano lessons when he was four. Early
TERESA LEE
on, televised pop acts with live musi- and an already-known quantity on the back, with a reconstituted rhythm section:
cians—especially those with jazz play- New York scene, Binney took the pianist Eivind Opsvik on bass and Waits on
ers—stimulated his imagination. When under his wing at the outset of his career drums. “Those sessions [for Criss Cross]
he was 14, he enrolled in Chetham’s and got him his first record deal. are kind of a quick, one-day thing,”
School of Music in Manchester. Early on, he says, Escreet was “kind of Escreet says. “[Nasheet] knew a lot of the
“It was a classical music school; it was straight-ahead, and kind of anti-anything book, and a lot of the music… therefore,
hardcore training,” Escreet describes. “I that wasn’t straight-ahead. We used to minimal preparation was needed.
was always serious about what I was doing, have discussions about that. I tried to open “Not to be lazy,” Escreet clarifies.
but there were little eight- and nine-year- him up a little bit into other things, and he “It’s just that I wanted to capture some-
old prodigies running around, just tearing did open up into other things… I just tried thing that was ongoing and currently
up Rachmaninoff concertos, for example.” to help him out, because I liked him and happening.”
Naturally—given his temperament—he thought he had something to offer.”
didn’t buckle under that pressure, but The pianist followed up Consequences ENTER THE WHIRLWIND
thrived on it; today, he calls his Chetham’s with 2010’s Don’t Fight the Inevitable, for Escreet had known bassist and Whirlwind
experience “a great environment to be in Binney’s label, Mythology Records. That Records founder Michael Janisch since he
during a very important time in was 19 or 20; that connection led to
my life.” He graduated from 2013’s Sabotage and Celebration, his
the school at 18, and studied first for the label. His final record
as an undergrad at the Royal “I was always with Binney as an accompanist to
Academy of Music in London date, it found the pair accompa-
for four years.
Which pianists got Escreet
serious [in nied by Brewer, tenor saxophonist
Chris Potter, and drummer Jim
going early on, influence-wise?
“I’ve always been into the school], but Black. That quintet had done some
gigs together in November 2011;
obvious, famous piano players, they could have recorded together
but also into the slightly more there were little then, but Escreet demurred. “I was
adventurous and obscure ones like, ‘Okay, this is good, but it’s not
who can really get my atten- eight-year- ready to record yet,’” he says. They
tion,” he says, citing Paul Bley, ended up nailing it in the studio the
Cecil Taylor, and Andrew Hill,
as well as Stanley Cowell, a
old prodigies following year, during Hurricane
Sandy time.
lesser-known figure who would “I was into string writing,”
go on to loom large in Seismic tearing up Escreet says of his creative mindset
Shift. From the contemporary during that time. “Which was not
crop, Escreet shouts out Jason Rachmaninoff featured so much on The Age We
Moran, Craig Taborn, and the Live In, but Sabotage and Celebra-
late Geri Allen. concertos.” tion starts out with that orchestral
In 2006, a 22-year-old Escreet string piece.” All involved stretched
emigrated to New York and out in the arranging and post-pro-
began a two-year master’s production processes: “It’s all over the
gram at the Manhattan School of Music. album featured the same group, but with place,” Escreet marvels. “It’s an epic,
Two years later, he graduated and released Nasheet Waits in lieu of Sorey. “I remem- wide-ranging album.”
his debut album as a leader, Consequences, ber him having a lot of vitality in his play- Following Sabotage and Celebration
featuring Binney, bassist Matt Brewer, and ing,” Waits says about Escreet. “He was were two albums for Sunnyside Records:
two top-flight innovators at the beginning always alert, astute… I can hear echoes 2014’s Sound, Space and Structures and
of their ascents: trumpeter Ambrose Akin- of Jason [Moran] in his playing, because 2016’s The Unknown, both featuring saxo-
musire and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. he spent quite a bit of time studying with phonist Evan Parker, bassist John Hébert,
In his early years, Escreet performed him.” He branched out stylistically with and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. “[Those
with Sorey in a couple of his early his next Mythology offering, The Age We two albums] go back to a trio I had with
bands: one a quartet with saxophonist Live In, featuring Binney, guitarist Wayne John Hébert and Tyshawn, about 10 years
Aaron Stewart and cornetist Taylor Ho Krantz, and drummer Marcus Gilmore. ago,” he explains, with an addendum
Bynum, the other a quintet featuring “That was a departure from the old that’s something of a refrain: “I didn’t feel
saxophonist Loren Stillman, guitarist band,” Escreet says of that album, which I was strong enough to record the trio at
Todd Neufield, and bassist Christopher The Guardian described as possessing “a that time.”
Tordini, which went on to record Sorey’s jolting contemporary-funk feel peppered Augmented by Parker, the group
2011 album Oblique. with Binney’s twisting alto-sax melodies.” recorded both Sunnyside albums in a
“I think [the Consequences tour] was “I kind of shifted, because I wanted to get purely improvised format. (“There’s not a
Ambrose’s first time in Europe, and into some other area of music that I was note of composed music on either of those
Tyshawn in that era … it was just hys- interested in.” albums,” he adds.) He characterizes Parker
terical,” Binney says. “And seeing John’s Binney then helped Escreet get a record as a “free-jazz icon,” and the experience
hometown … it’s just such another world.” date for Criss Cross, which resulted in of recording with him “hugely significant
Escreet’s senior by more than 20 years 2011’s Exception to the Rule. Binney was for me.”
Sound, Space and Structures divided free improvisation that gathers momen-
those extemporaneous creations into tum like a dustdevil; the following track,
“bite-sized chunks”; The Unknown, “RD,” stands for “Revis/Damion.”
organized as a 45-minute part one and “It was written specifically for those
29-minute part two, recorded on the same guys, for the first gig we had,” Escreet
tour of the Netherlands, is more reflective explains of the bisected composition. “I
of that quartet’s live show. was like: Okay, I got a gig with these guys;
Escreet followed that improvisational let me write something for their characters
dyad with 2018’s heavily electronic Learn and personalities.”
to Live, his first (and to date, only) album Escreet calls
for BRM Records. Joining him there were “Perpetual Love”
trumpeter Nicholas Payton, saxophonist “more of a melodic
Greg Osby, bassist Brewer, and two si- kind of tune with “If you’re into
multaneous drummers: Eric Harland and more discernible
Justin Brown.
“I hate to use the word fusion, but it’s
harmony, which is
not always the case the real s—t,
definitely more in that zone,” Escreet with my composi-
says, citing his use of Rhodes and
Prophet synthesizer. “It couldn’t be more
tions. Not to sound
cheesy, but there
check out
different than the new one I just put needs to be love
out.” He means Seismic Shift, which—
like each of its predecessors—was simply
and romanticism
within the context
Stanley Cowell.
an effort to document where he was at in of all the crazy s—
his musical life. that happens in the If you’re into the
world,” he says. “It’s
BREAKING IT DOWN a nice dynamic to
Seismic Shift initiates with “Study No. 1.” incorporate.” fake s—t, don’t
“As the very boring title suggests, it’s a pi- This harmonizes
ano study,” Escreet says dryly. “A slightly not only with the
older piano study that I wrote, just to ad- juxtaposed moods bother.”
dress some technical issues on the piano.” throughout Seismic
He means the rhythmic dimensions of his Shift, but Escreet’s
left-hand playing—and the results are far entire m.o. as an
from boring, but bracing and cerebral. artist. “Any music I present needs to be
“Equipoise” is a piece by Stanley varied,” he states in the album’s press re-
Cowell, a brilliant pianist, composer, lease. “There needs to be beauty alongside
and educator who only belatedly got his the wild moments, moments of tonality
flowers despite performing with Max against moments of abstraction.”
Roach, Charles Tolliver, Art Pepper, Bob- “Digital Tulips” sprang up as another
by Hutcherson, and other leading lights. one of Escreet’s piano studies, like “Study
“He’s something of an underdog, and he No. 1.”
only got his dues toward the end of his “It’s actually very difficult to play in
life,” Escreet explains. He got acquainted terms of this kind of bassline, together
with “Equipoise,” one of Cowell’s bet- with this crazy melody,” he says of the
ter-known compositions, via the version breathtakingly teeming tune. But beneath
on Cowell’s 1974 solo-piano record Musa: the technical bravado, there’s a relatively Escreet applies the title to several seis-
Ancestral Streams; after Cowell passed in simple harmonic and rhythmic essence. mic shifts in his life, from the pandem-
2020, Escreet communed with the album “It’s all in 4/4; it’s just a bunch of major ic—which affected everyone, in one way
like never before. chords, or sus chords,” Escreet adds. “It’s or another—to his own relocation from
“It really is kind of simple in some very difficult to execute, but once you New York to Los Angeles. Plus, “There’s
ways, but it gets straight to the heart of take the time and effort to execute it, it a lot of seismic activity in California,”
things,” Escreet says of “Equipoise.” “It’s doesn’t sound brainy and complex.” he notes. “When we get to the climax of
hard to describe; it’s melodic, but it’s Seismic Shift’s title track had been kick- the piece, it sounds like an earthquake—
soulful at the same time. It’s not boxed ing around for a few years with a different like the sky is falling and the ground is
in.” When asked why a neophyte should title. “It’s a very loose tune, especially in opening up.”
know Cowell, he replies somewhat terse- the beginning,” Escreet says. “It’s kind At shy of two minutes, “Quick Reset”
ly: “If you’re into the real s—t, check of wide-open improvisationally, but it’s does exactly what it sets out to do; it allows
him out. If you’re into the fake s—t, built around these two chords. I wanted listeners to catch their breath before the
don’t bother.” it to kind of build from nothing, and then darkly unsettled finale, “The Water Is
“Outward and Upward”—named build and build and build and build until Tasting Worse.” Longtime followers of
after a phrase of encouragement Cowell it reaches this climax,” he adds. “A wall of Escreet might note that this tune appeared
himself once laid on him—is an ominous sound where everybody goes f—ing crazy.” on an album more than a decade ago:
Exception to the Rule. “Because I was a “The three of us together, I feel like intention that’s intense, and I dug that.
much weaker player back in those days, I it’s unique,” Reid reflects. “I don’t think I think that’s part of why we get along
feel like we didn’t get it,” Escreet admits. anyone would have thought the three of musically, and even as friends.”
“It’s another technically difficult tune, us would put a record out together, to be Only someone like Escreet could make
but even though the head and composed honest.” This is because, in his telling, a dramatic creative swing like Seismic
material is technically challenging, the the music industry pigeonholes people, Shift—and not only make it believable,
blowing [e.g., improvising] is not.” keeping them in well-worn lanes. but memorable. Like the music, the hori-
But it’s difficult to imagine Escreet’s zon on the cover denotes time, memory,
INTENSE INTENTION next moves as being predictable or pre- and experience cleaved in two, traumati-
Escreet, Revis, and Reid recorded Seis- programmed; that’s never been his forte. cally and exhilaratingly.
mic Shift at Big City Recording Studios His focus is too sharp. As he put it in A confluence of drastic events, both
in Granada Hills—one of numberless the press release, “Any idea put forward, personal and global, didn’t destabilize
high-quality studios in the L.A. area, whether composed or improvised, needs Escreet’s artistry. Rather, it opened a door
but rare in the sense that it didn’t have a to have clarity and purpose.” to what he’s been seeking all this time:
“trash piano.” “When it’s a trio and it’s “He’s always been intense; that’s for aural starkness, a step into the spotlight,
TERESA LEE
so exposed,” Escreet says, “the standard sure,” Binney says. “I liked that. I liked a pure triangulation. It’s a shift he pre-
is different.” that in the musicality; he plays with an pared for all his life. JT
When BRAD MEHLDAU moved to New York
in the late 1980s, he entered “jazz heaven,” as he
describes in his moving new book
ALAN NAHIGIAN
By Brad Mehldau
In Brad Mehldau’s memoir Formation, a comper, and my model no doubt came
the pianist and composer recounts the from the musico-social interactions I
events of his early years, ending in the had in high school, where I would try
mid-1990s. Deep philosophical mus- to come over to someone’s side through
ings alternate with discomforting tales their music: metalhead? No problem,
of abuse, sexual confusion, and drug I’ll talk to him about Judas Priest. Stevie
addiction. But for jazz fans, the most Nicks devotee? We can hang out in her
engaging passages will undoubtedly be basement, and get dreamy together lis-
those long sections where Mehldau writes tening to Fleetwood Mac. It had worked
in depth about music and musicians. Two well enough in a high-school social set-
such sections appear below. In the first, ting. But how did that dictum play out in
our author, still a teenager and newly the abstracted sociality of collective jazz
arrived in New York improvisation?
from Connecticut, I began to learn
is finding his way in that instrumen-
the club scene of the talists and singers
late ’80s and learning often didn’t want
some lessons about or need a similar
accompaniment. validation from
the accompanist.
had been play- Actually, most
I ing piano in
[saxophonist]
Jesse Davis’ group
of the time, they
preferred that you
supply your steady
at Augie’s and it was support by staying
heaven—I felt like a clear of their path,
cog in a wheel, com- not answering
ping behind him. He their every idea,
played so rhythmical- but rather laying
ly strong and swing- something down
ing, and my comping more locked into
was improving every the bass and
week, being up there drums, even grid-
with him. Comping is Excerpted from Formation: Building a like. If you are con-
an indispensable part Personal Canon Part One by Brad Mehldau stantly trying to
(Equinox Publishing Ltd.). Copyright ©
of being a jazz pianist, interact with every
Brad Mehldau 2023.
unless you only want idea they present,
to play your own music without any oth- you are not really accompanying, prop-
er soloists. Even then you should have a erly speaking—you are hijacking their
handle on it. ideas in a sense, and putting the focus
The experience with Jesse helped to on what you’re doing instead. It becomes
ease an inferiority complex about com- more, “Look at me everyone, I’m so hip
ping I had brought to New York. It had and adept at catching the soloist/sing-
started during my first gig at the 880 er’s ideas!” But what it’s really saying
in Hartford, with [drummer/educator] to the soloist/singer (and the audience)
Larry DiNatale. Larry told me two or is: “Please like me!” It’s overbearing. It
three times: “You’re really talented, but feels like one of those people you know
you’ll never be a good comper.” I wasn’t who, when in a conversation with you,
then, at age 15. [Saxophonist] Joel Frahm is constantly affirming what you’re say-
was on the gig with us, and at least he ing—“Yeah . . . totally . . . exactly!”—be-
didn’t complain too much to me about fore you’ve even finished your thought.
how I comped behind him. I held onto My comping complex was rooted in
Larry’s words going forward as I arrived the bad old cloying social insecurity
in New York, trying to figure out what that had seeded in West Hartford—like
he had meant, always trying to be good in Mr. Mazzie’s class, or at Papa Gino’s
at comping, never really sure. In retro- [where Mehldau had an early job]. It was
spect, I think that Larry’s comment was that fear of rejection. In the first few
not f lippant. He was sensing something years in New York City, I began to excise
about my personality, and got me aware that quality from my comping. Next, in
of how that could play out detrimentally a familiar self-referential loop, I feared
in the music. that the act of excising itself was just
I had been trying to people-please as so much more people-pleasing. Finally,
Mehldau at the Village Gate in 1990 with
Leon Parker (L) and Ugonna Okegwu (R)
I began to simply let go a bit and learn it. But I also noticed that other people several chord changes—by doubling it.
through repeated experiences in live often did—most importantly, the solo- Yet it also underpinned that note with
situations, through trial and error…. A ists they were comping behind. So what other harmony that gave it dimension.
seed gets planted and then it takes some did it matter what I thought? In building Finally, there were a few more lower
time to sprout. It sprouted to fruition, a personal aesthetic it’s important to notes in the chord that welded it to the
I would say, when I joined Joshua Red- realize it’s just that—personal. bottom end of the tonality that Ron
man’s quartet a few years later. The more interactive kind of comping Carter supplied. That kind of gambit
I remembered the guy Jeremy at Papa was nevertheless a strong model. The required a deeply sophisticated under-
Gino’s who was f lipping pies within a unparalleled master was Herbie Han- standing of harmony and all its impli-
few short months while I struggled at cock in Miles Davis’ 1960s quintet (and cations, and the ability to call on it in
the grill. He didn’t give a shit—it was also on many Blue Note records, playing the white heat of someone’s solo. If you
5:45 evening rush hour, the place was as a sideman). When Miles or Wayne look at all of Miles’ piano players, all of
packed and customers were eyeing him soloed, Herbie, with his incredible ears, them were at the top of the heap of their
impatiently. But he was as cool as a would hear something in their line in contemporaries in terms of harmonic
cucumber, getting the pizzas in and out real time. Often it might be an unex- sophistication—Red Garland, Wynton
of the big oven. Maybe the thing was pected harmonic turn. Herbie would Kelly, Bill Evans—and Herbie pushed
to just not give a shit with comping as fuse with it, answering with a very the bar higher.
well—not to throw away your taste and specifically voiced chord that vindicat- Bill Evans was another role model.
sensibility, mind you, but to bring a little ed their idea. At its most inspired, that We think of Evans most often as a trio
CHARLES RUGGIERO
of that cavalier pie-f lipping thing into chord was three-tiered. It acknowledged innovator. On Kind of Blue, though, he
it. I started watching this less sensitive the bracing audacity of the soloist’s note inaugurated a coloristic kind of comp-
kind of comping going on at jam ses- choice—in Miles’ case, often a long, ing, less tethered to the rhythmic pulse,
sions or on gigs, and I didn’t always dig held-out note that spanned through on tunes like “So What” or “Flamenco
“Ed Blackwell was
quietly majestic at the
drums: unapproachable,
really, in his authority;
yet welcoming on some
elemental level, like fire
coals on a bed of earth.”
taking the wind out of their sails by sug- There was so much great music
gesting they needed finishing touches on around me every night. Often, there
their ideas. It might actually interrupt were tough decisions to make. Pianists
the f low of their story, instead of aiding Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton, Kenny
it. Let them acknowledge themselves. Barron, Barry Harris, and Hank Jones
Pianists like Red Garland, Sonny Clark, were all titans, at the top of my list. They
Cedar Walton, and Mal Waldron were played regularly at Bradley’s in a trio or
quintessential non-pretentious compers, duo setting for weeklong engagements.
each in their own inimitable way, and I watched their touch, their poise at the
they rubbed off on me. instrument, their complete relaxation. I
Jesse did something special, though, listened to their individual timbres, feel-
when I played with him: he listened ing the unique collective swing of each
back to what I was doing, and moved trio—the way the beat bounced around
with it. This was, in one light, an the piano, bass, and drums.
altruistic act as a soloist, forgoing his At Sweet Basil, there was a wider
exclusivity as the sole narrator of the range of instrumentation and style. It
story he told. He was feeding me, his was the place to see hard bop veterans
accompanist, something, and waiting like Art Farmer or Lou Donaldson, Mal
to see what I would give back. It was Waldron and Steve Lacy’s trance-like
a wonderful way to play, and I would duo, and Cecil Taylor’s wild Feel Trio.
Sketches.” There were other strong find it again a few years later with Josh- Gil Evans had a Monday-night slot there
instances as well, notably his comping ua Redman in his band, who initiated with his pared-down big band which
on Oliver Nelson’s classic The Blues and the same thing with me. As a comper, included all-round keyboardist and
the Abstract Truth, or his own Loose that back and forth exchange is not arranger Gil Goldstein, a friendly men-
Blues, comping behind Zoot Sims and something you should bring to the table toring presence for us early on, and an
Jim Hall. and present to the soloist or singer. You important teacher for many at the New
The other approach for comping, just are having a dialogue, yes—but by their School. Just up four blocks at the Van-
as appealing in terms of its musical re- invitation. They are still the host. guard, any number of exalted configura-
sults, but perhaps more difficult for me tions come to mind, like drummer Paul
to assimilate into my own expression, It is now 1990, and Mehldau, gradually Motian’s unrepeatable bassless trio with
was indeed the normative approach, the becoming more comfortable in Manhat- Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell. Or there was
one that the majority of exemplary piano tan, changes address and finds himself that week Ed Blackwell played with Don
stylists used. It was not people-pleasing. amid an embarrassment of riches. Pullen and George Adams, whose co-led
The idea was to stay with the bass and quartet were at the Vanguard regularly.
drums as a supporting team for the so- My third year in New York City, aged Blackwell’s drumming changed every-
loist. After all, that’s why you were part twenty … I moved from St. Mark’s Place thing for me. He showed how you could
of the rhythm section as a pianist—you into a studio apartment on Jones Street play in a formally unhinged context, yet
didn’t have a special title, like “mediator in the West Village, smack in the middle create your own shifting grid, one with
between soloist and rhythm section.” of jazz heaven. Surrounding me within simplicity and integrity which neverthe-
In this view, interactive comping was several blocks were blue-chip jazz clubs: less moved easily within the free current
pretentious and unwelcome. Ironically, the Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil, the of the music. And it felt so good. It had
trying so hard to acknowledge the solo- 55 Bar, the Blue Note, the Village Gate, been one thing to hear him do that on
ist or singer was rather self-important. and Visiones. Bradley’s, Fat Tuesdays, those hallmark recordings with the
You were stealing the soloists’ thunder. Condon’s, and the Knitting Factory were Ornette Coleman Quartet, but the live
Instead of validating them, you were only a 10-minute walk away as well. experience was something else.
On the Fender Rhodes at Augie’s,
tip basket close at hand
Mehldau in 1991
The sublime as I experienced it, with its

heady duality of recognition and fear, was
a live sublime in these memorable perfor-
mances. Blackwell was quietly majestic
at the drums: unapproachable, really, in
his authority; yet welcoming on some
elemental level, like fire coals on a bed of
earth. These kinds of visceral impressions
did not come from listening to records.
The physical immediacy of the musicians
made for a far more sensual intake, one
that was not only aural/visual. As strange
as it sounds, I often felt that I could even
smell the music. It might be brown liquor:
Lou Donaldson’s groups, particularly with
the joyous addition of Dr. Lonnie Smith
on Hammond B-3 organ (and sometimes
Peter Bernstein, who had one of his first
gigs with an older master playing with
Lou), had the bouquet of the Paddy Irish
Whiskey I had recently discovered on a
tour in Ireland—sweet but not cloying,
bracing. Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy were
CHARLES RUGGIERO
more like Scotch: smokier, and there was

also the real smell of smoke that came off
Waldron’s black tobacco cigarette which
remained inexplicably lit for the duration
“If you are constantly
trying to interact with
every idea soloists
present, you are not
really accompanying,
properly speaking—
you are hijacking their
ideas.”
of the set. In Blackwell’s case, there was Those piano players I heard at Brad- a smile like Buddha—one of delighted
indeed an earth smell to his playing: late ley’s and elsewhere were distinct from bliss, above mere excitement.
summer in a forest, the ground still damp each other, but they were all appealing They were in the music completely, yet
from a recent rain. because they had this absolutely relaxed, they were observing it, manipulating it ex-
Joe Henderson played at Fat Tuesdays, dancing feeling in their music. I wanted actly how they wanted, together as a unit.
often with the great Al Foster on drums. not only to play like that; I wanted to be There was something almost cruel about
You could hear trumpeter Harry “Sweets” like that. I wanted to carry that cool- the casual way they achieved that. How
Edison at Condon’s, still in fine form. ness with me. I suspected that it had could they not lose themselves in the gran-
And every Wednesday night, unless he something to do not only with the notes deur of it all? How could they not become
was on tour, guitarist Mike Stern’s trio they played but the lives they led. I was entranced by their own creation? That
was playing marathon sets at the 55 Bar projecting, or I wasn’t—I think part of power seemed almost dangerous—like a
practically down the street from my what I felt, intuitively, was also their sword only they could hold. So it brought
place, usually with electric bassist Jeff experience outside of the music. me a kind of fear beholding it. The live
Andrews and Adam Nussbaum, whom I There was this chasm of life between sublime they embodied could be a quiet
knew already from the 880 days in Hart- them and me. They were elders but, insurrection—taking my power away as a
ford: a powerful drummer who cracked a far from being stuffy or didactic, these listener, leaving me whipped, standing by
whip under me in a few sessions I played elders were hipper than I was, not the the bar. They achieved it in the music with
with him at the New School. There was other way around. There was always cold-blooded insouciance, like sipping
a $5 cover charge and you could stay as that sophistication in their playing, a whiskey, or waiting at a bus stop.
long as you wanted if you bought two subtlety that was regal. It demanded When Cedar Walton would walk off
drinks. Most of us were under the legal your respect, without any words or the stage, I might meet his eye before
drinking age of 21, but we never got card- history lessons. It was all there in the I turned away quickly, not wanting to
ed at any of those places in those days, music. Whether they played or whether stare. I was cowed by all those masters,
even the baby-faces among us. New York they stood at the bar fraternizing, they and never approached them. Somewhere
City was much more anarchic then. It seemed to be free from earthly burdens in me, though, the music was seeping
all began to change when Rudy Giuliani even as they were solidly on the earth, in. I was going to have that some day.
became mayor in 1994. tasting its fruit with mirth. It would settle into me with time and I
Particular sets, like the one with Ed I was taking all that in—not just being would speak it with the grace they had.
Blackwell the first night I saw him, were inf luenced by the music but also check- I may have lacked self-confidence in so
one-off transformations for me. I would ing out the attitude: the way the musi- many areas of my life, but I always knew:
come out of the club having experienced cians carried themselves. Mal Waldron that’s my terrain, that’s within my grasp.
a musical sensation I didn’t know existed smoked those brown cigarettes while he Not the way they are doing it—I couldn’t
an hour-and-a-half earlier. Then I would played in the minimalist approach I had do that—but something my own that
think: “That is the real shit, what just loved on records, building up just one or would come out of it. I just had to stay
took place. That’s what I need to get in two ideas for a large span of time, cre- with the music I loved, and be strong in
my own playing.” Maybe that’s the reason ating a trance with his chugging swing. it. And, even though I didn’t want to turn
people become narrow in their taste Billy Higgins had this particular gesture square and get boxed in, I also had to stay
as they get older—they’re chasing that as he answered Cedar’s ideas, chopping loyal to that, and not start playing some
beautiful, incomparable initial rupture, wood with his fat snare drum—like a candy-assed crap that wasn’t real. Look-
and they want to get back to the thing shock of energy that snapped through ing back, holding to those guidelines was
that broke them free in the first place. his shoulders and released outwards never difficult. It was the rest of my life
You can’t. with a nod of his head. He played with that was falling apart. JT
E Y A LEXA NDER
the pa nd emic, JO d —and
During hom e g ro un
returned to a s a co mposer
blossom e d
y Ge o ffr ey Himes
B ev ie Chris
h y b y St
Photograp
M
idnight Waves,” a highlight of June at the family’s newish apartment in In many ways, such maturity as a
Joey Alexander’s sixth album, Baltimore. His father is still Alexander’s composer at 19 is as impressive as the
Origin, describes the nocturnal closest musical adviser, and his mother command of the keyboard that Alexan-
ocean off Bali, where the teenaged pianist still acts as de facto road manager. During der showed at 11. He recorded “Midnight
and his parents returned home to sit out our interview in the apartment, she stayed Waves” as a piano-trio piece with bassist
part of the pandemic. The family had lived busy with papers nearby but only spoke up Larry Grenadier and drummer Kendrick
on the island until 2011 when the eight- when her son needed a name or a date. Scott at New York’s Sear Studio during
year-old son’s prodigious keyboard talents “When the pandemic hit, I had that the week of his 18th birthday, in the
had necessitated a move to the national feeling of not knowing what lay ahead,” summer of 2021.
capital of Jakarta—and, two-and-a-half Alexander confesses. “It was an inspir- “I was trying to figure out how to get
years after that, to New York. ing moment. I had to tell myself, ‘I don’t the musicians into the mindset of the
That latter move had kicked off a whirl- know what’s next.’ We were living near the piece,” he says. “They had never played
wind six years of five albums, three Gram- ocean, so I could hear the tranquility of this music before; this was their first
my nominations, international tours, and the waves through the window. I said to impression of it. I was trying to commu-
a deluge of media attention. But COVID myself, ‘Why don’t I write about some- nicate on a personal level, because I like
brought all of that to a screeching halt. The thing that’s right in front of me?’” to see myself in the song. But I like to see
son and his parents got off the career tread- What he wanted, he realized, was to be other people as well, and I was very hap-
mill, got out of New York, and went back known as more than a child prodigy who py with the musical insights that Larry
to Indonesia to decompress and decide on could play jazz piano at a level unheard of and Kendrick brought to the piece.”
their next moves. Alexander was able to go for one so young. He wanted to be known “The music is a representation of who
to the beach, watch the moon add its icing as a composer. He had recorded more he is,” Grenadier comments by phone
to the incoming waves, and focus on what originals on each of his successive albums, from Switzerland, “not just as a player
he most wanted from his music. and he wanted to devote the entirety of his but also as a person. He’s a very spiritual
“We all need that time frame when we next project to his own compositions. And dude. He’s able to use that connection in
can rest and rejuvenate,” he says. “I needed one of them would be “Midnight Waves,” a the music. The tunes are pretty com-
to reflect on these past years. Sometimes musical evocation of the scene before him plete; he wrote out some stuff for us.
we pass by the big moments in our lives on the beach. They’re realized, so it’s up to us to inter-
and the small moments too, because we He conjured up the scene with a pret that. The composition is there, it’s
get sidetracked by all the busyness. Some- rippling figure in his left hand and a right- just our version that has to be decided.”
times I forget to pause and remember what hand motif that resembled the bubbling Alexander insists that he’s always wanted
has happened. It was a tough time for all foam as the waves crested. But there was to be a composer. Even his 2015 debut
of us, so we escaped to Bali for five months more to the tune than mere sonic descrip- album, My Favorite Things, released when
to clear our minds and make a fresh start.” tion; there was a feeling of weariness and he was 11, featured one original among the
By “all of us,” he’s referring to himself the grateful relief of putting that exhaust- standards by Thelonious Monk, Harold
and his parents, Denny and Fara Sila, who ing work behind him for the time being. Arlen, John Coltrane and the like. The 2016
have lived with Alexander since his birth It’s not easy to invest an engaging jazz follow-up, Countdown, included three orig-
in 2003 through his moves to Jakarta and tune with such emotion—especially when inals. The 2017 live recording, Joey. Monk.
then New York to his 19th birthday in you won’t turn 20 till the summer of 2023. Live!, was an all-Monk affair, but the third
“ WHEN THE
PANDEMIC
HIT, I HAD
THAT FEELING
OF NOT
KNOWING
WHAT LAY
AHEAD. IT
WAS AN
INSPIRING
MOMENT.
studio album, 2018’s Eclipse, contained six attention was his incongruously mature the kid was leading a trio at the Jakarta
originals. Alexander wrote 10 of the 12 playing at such an early age. Even when his Jazz Festival, and a year after that he won
tracks on 2020’s Warna and all 10 of the blue tennis shoes couldn’t reach the pedals the all-ages Grand Prize at a festival in
pieces on his latest release, Origin. from his cranked-up-high piano bench Odesa, Ukraine. A year after that, Wynton
“I wanted to write my own music from at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2015, he Marsalis invited Alexander to play at Lin-
the start,” he says, “but early on I still had could already do more than just play fast coln Center’s 2014 gala. Motéma Records
so much to learn, so I held myself back. I and accurately. The velocity was there signed him to a contract, and Jazz at Lin-
wanted to play Coltrane and Monk first, when he needed it, but more often he was coln Center’s Jason Olaine produced the
so it took a moment for me to stretch out able to employ punctuation and dynamics My Favorite Things album with such heavy
as a writer. I always wanted to share my to coax real feeling out of his pieces. hitters as Grenadier (Brad Mehldau, Pat
stories, but now I have more to say, so this Herbie Hancock had been impressed Metheny) and Ulysses Owens Jr. (Chris-
might be the right time and right place.” when he stumbled upon an eight-year- tian McBride).
Of course, what first caught everyone’s old Alexander in Jakarta. A year later, “The first thing that impressed me,
“He was already going for something of a resolution but then delay it for a
different than being just another bebop beat or two, as if fatigue were causing
pianist. That’s usually a thing that comes the narrator to falter for a moment. And
later. Most students are taking in so much when the ending does land, it provides
information and it takes a while to filter that much more satisfaction for having
through that and find themselves. Joey overcome an obstacle.
seemed to have already done that. He “When I’m composing,” he says, “I sit
didn’t play like anyone else. Most pianists down at the piano and play until I find
have gone through classical music and something I like. I’ll record that and listen
then switched to jazz. Joey wasn’t like that; back. Then I’ll develop the piece from that
he went directly to jazz.” theme until it becomes a composition.
Along the way, of course, there will be
Meeting Alexander for the first time changes, because I try to be open and find
since 2015, one is struck by how the short, ways to say more with less. If it’s a blues
chubby middle-school-age kid has length- tune, it can all happen quickly, because I
ened into a taller, thinner college-age know the changes. But tunes like ‘Mid-
adolescent. On the seventh floor of his night Waves,’ ‘On the Horizon’ and ‘Win-
apartment building, in a nicely furnished, ter Blues’ take more time to write, because
piano-dominated room overlooking they’re longer and contain more layers.”
Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood, he is “Winter Blues” is one of four sea-
wearing blue jeans, pink socks and a gray, son-themed pieces on the recent album,
zippered sweatshirt. joining “Dear Autumn,” “Promise of
“I played the Keystone Korner two Spring” and “Summer Rising.” Unlike
nights in the fall of 2021,” he recalls, “and Vivaldi’s, Alexander’s four seasons upend
we stayed in Baltimore for two extra days our assumptions for each time of year.
to look around. Immediately we felt at “Winter Blues,” for example, isn’t the gray,
home, and we rented this place soon after. icy music you might anticipate; instead
New York had given me a lot: the drive to it offers an ebullient tune over bouncy
be creative, to always be one step ahead rhythms. It’s not a reflection of January
of the game. But I feel at peace here; it’s but rather an antidote to it.
not as frantic as New York. That change “I tried to reverse people’s expecta-
of pace was something I needed at this tions,” Alexander admits. “Winter’s a
time. The Keystone is a hub for the jazz time when people don’t like to go outside
community here. I can drop by and see because it’s really cold, so they stay inside.
my friends like Bill Charlap and Christian So I try to give them that happy, danceable
Sands play there.” feeling. I like to surprise the listener, and
What hasn’t changed since his earlier in the process I often surprise myself.”
incarnation are the thick-frame glasses and The recorded version features a quintet,
the sheaf of dark hair hanging over his fore- with saxophonist Chris Potter and gui-
head. His music too has echoes of his ear- tarist Gilad Hekselman joining Grenadier
lier work. The fluid fingering, the unshowy and Scott. Alexander plays both acoustic
confidence and the melodic instincts of his piano and Fender Rhodes, and when the
prodigy days are still apparent. What’s new push-and-pull 6/8 theme climaxes in solos
is a willingness to depart from comfortable on tenor, guitar and Rhodes, it sounds
harmonies and expected development to more than a little like Aja-period Steely
build tension in a piece. And out of that Dan. There’s even a coda of free-form im-
tension grows the drama that gives his prov. It’s a long way from the pre-Wynton
newer compositions more weight. jazz canon where the young pianist began.
“Instead of the AABA form, sometimes “Chris plays his ass off on that song,”
obviously, was that this guy could play I’ll try an ABAB form,” he explains. “That Alexander agrees. “It’s important to
amazingly well at such an early age,” may seem funny, but I try to be open to remember the past but just as important
Grenadier now says about those first different approaches. As a composer, you to make new memories. I’m making them
sessions. “But that’s the easy answer. The can control the narrative, and it’s okay with these musicians. I want each album
idea of his age quickly disappeared as to make changes along the way. I don’t to have a different sound, a different feel,
soon as we started. It became more like, want to be locked into the way it’s always and that’s hard to do—to sound different
here’s another interesting piano player been done. The old ways are effective, but but still connected to what came before.
to play with. He’s gotten better since, but they’re not the only way to do it. The im- It’s the musicians who play on each one
even then he was really good, not just in portant thing is to play with feeling.” who make it different. I find musicians by
the big things but also in the little things “Midnight Waves” is a good example. word of mouth, but they have to be open
like touch and timing. He was like Ahmad He suggests the experience of recuperat- to new possibilities. They have to know the
Jamal; he knew how to set something up ing from a draining few years by creating value of a moment of silence but also be
and let it simmer. musical phrases that lead up to the brink able to react to what I’m playing.”
“
I WANTED TO WRITE
MY OWN MUSIC FROM
THE START, BUT EARLY
ON I STILL HAD SO MUCH
TO LEARN, SO I HELD MYSELF
BACK.
Those moments of silence are

crucial, because the pianist is seeking
”
you want to happen differently each time,
so you leave room for solos. How the one
a vocal-like quality for his melodies. interacts with the other is crucial.
And characteristic of such vocals are “It’s always best to put the composition
the pauses a singer or a speaker takes and the improvisation together,” he says.
between phrases, and the accents that “Becoming a better composer helped
emphasize some words over others. me become a better improviser. Because
Alexander’s recent instrumentals do this I’m always looking for fresh lines when I
quite effectively. write, they now come to me when I’m so-
“Recently I’ve been digging more into loing without even thinking about it. On
some non-jazz music by Burt Bacharach, the other hand, a better song can inspire
Michel Legrand, and the Beatles,” he us to improvise better. When I’m per-
reveals. “By listening to their music, I get forming my own songs, I feel I have more
a sense of what a great melody is. It makes freedom to change them. When I play a
me aim for that vocal quality. As musi- piece that’s been played by so many, I feel
cians, our instruments are our words, and limited by the way it’s been done before.
we have to speak through them. If you’re I always try to find myself in every piece,
honest and what comes out is beautiful, but it’s harder.”
that says a lot about you.” “With tunes you improvise on,” Gren-
“The compositions are an extension of adier points out, “you want harmony
the way he plays the piano,” Grenadier that’s interesting enough that you don’t
adds. “His musical fingerprint is translat- mind repeating it and form that’s inter-
ing to his compositions. He’s not reinvent- esting enough that you stay committed
ing the wheel; he’s using the song forms to it. It’s tricky to create compact forms
of the past but putting his own stamp on that fit on one page and yet are interest- “We didn’t really know where it was
them. As you age, you get more confi- ing harmonically like the old standards. going,” Alexander admits, “but that was
dent speaking in your own voice, in your Joey’s coming more from that approach. exciting because it could be anything. We
sound, touch, all the ways we make music, You’re trying to improvise against the trusted each other that when they reacted
so it makes sense that Joey is increasingly melody at first and then go somewhere to my vamps, somehow we would find a
present in his compositions. It’s going from that. An improvisation should try home where we could come together.”
to be interesting to watch him grow as a to attain the quality of a melody that Paradoxically, Eclipse was both looser and
composer, more life experiences, more sings over the chords.” bolder, less prescribed and more ambitious.
interaction with musicians. The channel is A new boldness in Alexander’s com- He was less worried about nailing down
open now; he just has to feed it.” positions emerged on the 2018 album every detail beforehand and yet reaching for
Part of being a jazz composer, Alexan- Eclipse. The 10-minute title track was an ever newer, ever stronger effects. The more
der soon discovered, is working out the open-ended improvisation that found assured he became of his composing, the
relationship of the notated passages to Charles Lloyd’s rhythm section of Eric more relaxed he became about his band’s
the improvised sections. Some things you Harland and Reuben Rogers responding to improvising. This breakthrough led to the
want to happen every time, so you write the pianist’s phrases and adding twists of two albums with Kendrick and Grenadier—
them down for the band. Some things their own. Warna and Origin—as well as his current
live shows with bassist Kris Funn and drum- realize, ‘Wow, this music is flying.’” school, so he doesn’t always know the
mer John Davis. You can hear that on the new album, terminology, so you have to figure out
“When I bring in a new song,” he says, especially when Potter grabs hold of one by what he wants by listening to what he
“I will share the charts with the musicians. of Alexander’s themes and takes off for plays more than what he says, which I dig,
But when we start playing, I want them to a soaring solo—on soprano for “On the because it allows more possibilities; it’s not
use their instincts rather than relying on Horizon” and on tenor for “Rise Up.” On like everything else.
the chart. I want them to play feelings, not the latter tune, written in 9/8, the long “It reminded me of back in history,
just the notes. They hear different things measures seem to grease the momentum when there would be territorial sounds:
than I do, and I want those different things as the piece builds from tentative begin- a St. Louis sound, a Kansas City sound,
on the record. I like to leave space for oth- ning to robust, collective improvisation a Chicago sound. But that has gone by
er people to come in and share the music at the end. the wayside as we have access to all this
with me—not just the other musicians but “On this new album,” Grenadier information. But Joey has that kind of
also the audience. Once the compositions confirms, “there were moments of him different signature. Maybe it’s because he
are completed, I don’t really know how the wanting to open things up. It wasn’t free- was isolated from the jazz scene when he
music’s going to sound till I get together free, but it was free within the parameters started playing. Maybe this is the start of
with the group. It’s such a relief when I of meter and key. He didn’t go to music the Bali sound.” JT
AUDIO FILES
NAD C 399 BluOS-D

integrated amplifier
Meze Audio 109 Pro

Headphones
SVS Prime Wireless Pro

Speaker System
Gear of the Year for 2022

From cutting-edge components to cool retro throwbacks,
here are our favorite audio products from the last year
BY BRENT BUTTERWORTH
D espite lingering COVID concerns and

supply-chain constrictions, the audio
industry somehow managed to come up
phone or the Internet as a source. The
Prime Wireless Pro not only sounds really
good, it offers some nice extra conve-
NAD C 399 BLUOS-D INTEGRATED
AMPLIFIER ($2,599)
Lots of integrated amps—which com-
with a whole new slew of appealing products. niences, such as a subwoofer output; six bine a power amp and a preamp—now
While 2022 didn’t yield any major sonic rev- programmable content presets (so you can incorporate some kind of streaming,
olutions, it did produce many new products immediately access, say, a Sonny Rollins but the C 399 BluOS-D has the best
that are more technologically versatile than playlist or your favorite jazz station); and kind of streaming: BluOS, which can
ever, and a few more basic products that still an HDMI eARC input that lets the speak- play high-resolution files stored on a
managed to excel even in categories that ers work like they’re part of your TV. networked computer or hard drive, as
have been evolving for decades. well as all major streaming services. The
Here are the new products from 2022 MEZE AUDIO 109 PRO HEADPHONES ($799) 180-watt-per-channel amp also includes a
that we thought might most excite Jazz- Romania’s Meze Audio has won over au- subwoofer output, an HDMI ARC input,
Times readers—from high-tech, noise-can- diophiles with high-end headphones priced a phono input, and Dirac Live, which au-
celing earphones to traditional (yet terrific) from $2,000 to $4,000, but the 109 Pro tomatically calibrates your audio system
tower speakers. brings much of Meze’s sound quality and to sound best in your room.
design panache down to a more afford-
SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO SPEAKER able price. Not only are they among the MONITOR AUDIO SILVER 300 7G
SYSTEM ($899.99) best-sounding headphones we’ve ever heard, ($2,422.50/PAIR)
Active speakers with built-in amplifiers they easily rank among the most beautifully The 7G is the seventh revision of a speaker
and streaming capabilities have been the crafted headphones we’ve ever seen—and design that already sounded great when
hottest trend in hi-fi for the last few years, you can drive them with anything from a it was introduced decades ago, and just
because you just plug them and use your fancy amp to a smartphone. keeps getting better. With two 6-inch
Pro-Ject E1 Turntable
Polk MagniFi Mini AX Soundbar
Audio-Technica AT-SB2022 Sound

Burger Portable Record Player
Monitor Audio Silver 300 7G
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd True Wireless Earphones
woofers, a 3-inch midrange and a 1-inch POLK MAGNIFI MINI AX SOUNDBAR feature very good noise canceling, they
tweeter, it can easily cover everything ($399) can personalize their response to suit
from Elvin Jones’ most enthusiastic bass- The MagniFi Mini AX is just 14½ inch- your hearing, and they’ll run about 11
drum kicks to Eric Dolphy’s fleetest flute es long, but it sounds more enveloping hours on a charge, which is well above
solos, all with exceptional clarity and than most larger soundbars do—which average for true wireless.
realism. Optional, matching center and means it can conjure up convincing
surround speakers expand the Silver 300 sonic images of anything from Carne- AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-SB2022 SOUND
7G into a full home theater system. gie Hall to Batman’s Gotham City, all BURGER PORTABLE RECORD PLAYER
from its 3D Sound mode. Not only does ($199)
PRO-JECT E1 TURNTABLE ($349 TO $499) it connect to your TV, but it also works With vinyl more popular than it’s been
The E1 is the latest budget turntable from as a surprisingly sweet-sounding music in decades, it’s no surprise Audio-Tech-
Pro-Ject, building on a basic design the system, streaming through Bluetooth or nica decided to reintroduce the Sound
company introduced in the early 1990s, Google Chromecast. Burger, its iconic 1970s-era portable
and that’s been earning praise from record player. But this time, the Burg-
audiophiles ever since. It comes in three BEYERDYNAMIC FREE BYRD TRUE er’s got a built-in Bluetooth transmit-
versions: the basic E1 at $349; the $399 E1 WIRELESS EARPHONES ($229) ter, so it can beam sound to Bluetooth
Phono with a built-in phono preamp; and The Free Byrds easily rank among the speakers or headphones—and we were
the $499 E1 BT, with a built-in preamp best-sounding true wireless earphones shocked to hear how good it sounded
and Bluetooth transmitter. Although we’ve heard—and despite the name, even through a little $200 wireless
it’s fully adjustable, the E1 is basically their neutral, natural tonal balance speaker. There’s also a line output that
plug’n’play—factory-adjusted for the makes them even better for jazz than lets you connect it to a conventional
included Ortofon OM 5e cartridge. they are for rock. On top of that, they stereo system. JT
CHOPS
Danilo Pérez
Explaining the Taubman Approach

Many jazz pianists swear by it—but what is it exactly?
BY MICHAEL J. WEST
S everal years ago, one of Danilo

Pérez’s students was suffering from
tendinitis. Pianist Pérez was then a pro-
ideas of Taubman (who died in 2013).
Pérez made an appointment to get more
information, and had his world rocked.
Taubman approach, the word is “holis-
tic.” It teaches that contrary to much
of piano pedagogy, playing the instru-
fessor at the New England Conservatory; “She had me play, she made a video and ment is not about the fingers in and of
his student, also a pianist, experienced made notes when I played, and she broke themselves.
muscle fatigue and pain when he played. it down,” he says. “She said, ‘You know “Our fingers are an extension of the
“I gave him the normal recipe: ‘Stop why you are not playing more octaves? entire body, but more importantly of
playing, let it come down, and then start Because you are doing this wrong, and the mechanism that puts the fingers on
again,’” Pérez recalls. “And I gave him you need to work on it.’ She was talking the keys, which means the hand and the
some tips. But nothing worked. I felt about physics, movement, and when she wrist,” says pianist Bill Charlap, who like
committed to helping him, so I started was done, I said, ‘I came here for infor- Perez swears by Taubman. “Fingers con-
searching around. And that’s how I got mation for my student, but I wanna be nected to the meat of the hand, connected
to the Taubman piano school.” your student.’” to the wrist, connected to the forearm,
Taubman (or the Taubman Approach) Golandsky says that the kind of pro- connected to the upper arm.”
is indeed the name for a school of found experience Pérez had is one that The goal, then, is to retrain the hands
thought, a piano method formulated by she sees a lot when people first encounter and arms so that a pianist’s physical
music pedagogue Dorothy Taubman. But the Taubman approach. “If you do it efforts are balanced across that entire
what Pérez found was a literal school: right, it transforms your playing totally,” mechanism rather than concentrated in
the Golandsky Institute. Its director, she says. “And as a result it transforms the fingers. In particular, the Taubman
TITO HERRERA
Edna Golandsky, is an Israeli-born you, because you become a happier per- approach emphasizes the rotation of the
concert pianist and educator who is also son, no longer frustrated or in pain.” wrist and forearm in moving the fingers
the foremost authority on the work and If there’s one word to sum up the over the keys.
“You’re working
with the way
that the arm
naturally falls
onto a surface.”
Bill Charlap
TK
“It’s not twisting the wrist,” Charlap some lessons with Golandsky’s colleague Charlap, and Iverson have all found
cautions, “because it’s about not getting John Bloomfield. “It’ll hurt you if you themselves able to do things they simply
in awkward or uncomfortable or unnat- actually try to force your fingers to all couldn’t before. Pérez, in fact, says
ural positions for your wrist, hand, and strike with the same level of velocity.” that in addition to solving technical
finger. You’re working with the way that The classic example is the 19th-century problems and limitations, studying
the arm naturally falls onto a surface composer and pianist Robert Schumann, with Golandsky has introduced more
when you just let gravity do the work, who permanently hobbled his hand by singing tone to his playing. He relates
and with the natural ref lexive ways that using weights to try and strengthen his it to the f low of energy and movement
you move your arms in your everyday fourth finger. the technique encourages. “I study tai
movements.” Golandsky has seen plenty of other chi,” he says. “Taubman is very much the
That sense of natural movement is a examples too. “People come with ten- same: Learning these basic, fundamental
key aspect of the Taubman approach. sion, people come with fatigue, people movements that give you the ground
Golandsky often works with onetime come with pain,” she says. “They go to to acquire that kind of synchronicity.”
child prodigies, people who instinctually doctors, they go to therapists; the ten- Golandsky agrees, also drawing parallels
learned the instrument. “Then they went dency is to try and deal with the symp- with Pilates and other disciplines that
to conservatory and the teachers said, toms, but not with the causes. People emphasize alignment and holistic uses
‘You have to move your fingers more, do don’t think it has much to do with the of the human body.
the exercises,’ and their natural tech- playing itself.” She does find, however, that even
nique completely deteriorated,” she ex- Healing is a great part of what the musicians who struggle with injuries
plains. “Then, when I bring them back, Taubman approach can do for musi- and other physical problems can be
they say, ‘This is how it used to feel.’” cians, but it is also applicable before intimidated by the promise of sweeping
Indeed, one of Taubman’s axioms is such injuries occur—simply by provid- changes to their practice. “They are
that overemphasis on the fingers is not ing concrete answers to learners’ ques- afraid it will take away the mystery of
only unnatural but actively harmful. For tions. “When I ran into limitations as a the creative process, or that it will make
example, traditional piano pedagogues student, there was nothing out there to everyone sound the same,” she says. “My
like Czerny and Hanon stress training address it except ‘Go and practice more,’ answer is, when painters learn how to
the fourth and fifth fingers—which are or doing exercises,” Golandsky says. mix colors and brush technique, they
naturally restrained relative to the other “When I came to Dorothy and asked don’t end up painting the same picture.
fingers by a tendon in the hand—to use questions about problems, about limita- “In other words, you have to have the
equal force as their counterparts. tions, I heard rational explanations and craft to give you the freedom to actu-
“It’s ridiculous. It’s a mistake,” says answers. I never got that anywhere else.” alize who you are. Music, like all art,
KEITH MAJOR
pianist Ethan Iverson. Not quite a dev- But what really speaks volumes, needs a craft—and the craft frees you to
otee on the level of Pérez or Charlap, he they say, are the results. After finding be what you want. That’s what the Taub-
still endorses the approach after taking their ways out of old, bad habits,Pérez, man approach can do for you.” JT
REVIEWS
incantation with a bold, sticks largely to the Fab
DEZRON propulsive groove that Four’s ballads (“And I
DOUGLAS suddenly erupts into Love Her,” “Michelle”),
Atalaya Sanders-style tran- Lewis allows himself
International Anthem scendent turbulence. to indulge in flights of
“Rosé” boasts the fancy that often drift
“Forward,” intones each warming elegance of from the basic melody.
member of Dezron a lush, well-balanced That approach is stated
Douglas’ quartet, wine, while “Coyoacán” midway through the
punctuated by the takes off at a gallop and opening track, Paul
percussive clack of maintains that pace McCartney’s “Here,
wooden claves, at the until its airy coda. The There and Everywhere,”
outset of the bassist’s elusive “Luna Moth” is wherein Lewis tem-
latest album. Based on an aptly eclectic tribute porarily abandons the
the music that follows, to the inventive bassist song’s sweet tuneful-
Douglas regards the Mario Pavone, who ness in favor of a deep
word not in terms of passed away in 2021. dive into note-heavy
radical reinvention but Douglas goes it alone complexity. His choice
simply as a reminder on “Octopus,” venturing to eschew accompani-
of the continuum of into electric fusion with ment throughout the
tradition. his effects-altered bass recording gives Lewis
A protégé of Jackie before the band closes all the leeway he could
McLean, Douglas has the album with the hope for, and he makes
been a prolific sideman sultry, tango-inflected use of that freedom
“Foligno.” Douglas often.
brings these eclectic But Lewis’ respect for
influences together the composers’ intent is
into a cohesive sound never abused. Whether
more accessible than on a song as seemingly
adventurous. random as “Rocky Rac-
—SHAUN BRADY coon” or one covered
“Confident that you’ll by thousands of artists
before him (“Yesterday,”
come listening for his
RAMSEY LEWIS “Blackbird”), Lewis’
business”: Joe Chambers
across a wide spectrum The Beatles Song- homages never fail
of styles, working with book: The Satur- to honor the Beatles’
In Good Hands
straightahead masters day Salon Series, essence, even as he
(Cyrus Chestnut, Volume One puts his own distinctive
Mulgrew Miller, Steele stamp on a melody. If
Distinguished veteran Joe Chambers takes us on a Louis Hayes); searching there’s one extraneous
firebrands (Pharoah Ramsey Lewis first track on the dozen-song
multicultural voyage Sanders, David Murray); found fame in the early collection, however,
modern torchbearers ’60s by interpreting pop that would be John
JOE CHAMBERS (Ravi Coltrane, Brandee hits, specifically Dobie Lennon’s “Imagine,”
Dance Kobina Younger); post-mod- Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd,” the only number from
Blue Note ernists (Makaya which crossed over into a solo Beatle’s catalog.
McCraven); and even the Billboard Top 10 in It’s been done too many
Joe Chambers (no relation to Paul Cham- jazz-influenced rock 1965, and the McCoys’ times by too many
bers) grew up near Philadelphia, turned artists (Phish’s Trey “Hang on Sloopy” people, and Lewis
pro in 1963 at age 21, and racked up session Anastasio). later that year. His first adds nothing new to it.
time with Lee Konitz, Stanley Cowell, Art Many of those major flirtation with the That aside, The Beatles
Farmer, McCoy Tyner, and many more—in streams converge on music of the Beatles Songbook is a perfect
addition to many albums as a leader and Atalaya, Douglas’ first came the following year, bookend to a long and
many composer credits. He switches be- full-length release as when the highly prolific illustrious career.
tween drums, vibes, and piano, although he a leader in four years. —JEFF TAMARKIN
sticks to the first two for this set. That’s his The paw print on the
name up front once more, but he’s generous to his many and shifting cover seems to link the
sidepeople here and content to lay in the background, confident that album with his 2018 EP FRANK ZAPPA
you’ll come listening for his business. As you will, given the rewards Black Lion, which felt Waka/Wazoo
multiple listens (through headphones) are sure to grant you. like a redefining effort Zappa/UMe
Montreal pianist Andrés Vial certainly sets the tone on the with its boisterous
three tunes (out of nine) where he writes, plays, and co-produces. sextet arrangements Perhaps no other com-
The aim there, at least, was to plumb the nexus where jazz, Latin, and influences from poser in history touched
and African musics connect, aided by Vial’s doubling on bombos funk, soul, and reggae. on so many different
legüeros (Argentine drums fashioned from hollow tree trunks, with Instead, Atalaya debuts pianist’s take on “A Hard variations as guitarist/
animal skins for heads) and Elli Miller Maboungou’s employment of a new quartet—with Day’s Night” snuck into vocalist Frank Zappa
African ngoma drums, developed by the Bantu peoples. saxophonist Emilio the Top 30. The Beatles (1940-1993), who fused
Throughout swirling interplays on top, Chambers ticks over with Modeste, keyboardist Songbook: The Saturday rock, doo-wop, blues,
the casual mastery of a lifetime, skipping beats, pushing, laying George Burton, and Salon Series, Volume jazz, classical, comedy
back, doubling, and even throwing down silence when appropriate, drummer Joe Dyson, One, a solo piano work, and beyond. The new,
never missing a nuance. His composition “Ruth,” no doubt an ode Jr.—and locks into a was recorded in the five-disc Waka/Wazoo
to a special lady, benefits from brushwork before sticks on cymbals, fervent hard-bop mode, summer of 2022, just boxed set features
Richard Germanson’s careful piano, and Marvin Carter’s alto—cu- with occasional detours a month before Lewis’ alternate takes from his
riously fitting in and sticking out from the background simultane- into free playing or death at age 87. albums Waka/Jawaka
ously. All in all, a rich, elegant, satisfying set from a quiet talent, still Afro-Latin grooves. Unsurprisingly, it’s a and The Grand Wazoo,
RANDY COLE
green and growing. The tone is set by touching, sensitive and both from 1972, along
—andrew hamlin the title track, which intelligently executed with the original album
follows that opening tribute. Although he tracks in Blu-Ray Audio;
previously unreleased including many of the “But is it jazz?” The is peaceably set to a Soul)” gives them a the latter half of the
Zappa-engineered tracks demoed on 24-year-old keyboardist/ three-note piano vamp. chance to unravel into a 1950s recording for
demo recordings by Disc 3, would consist drummer named his All are worth hearing, warped freedom before a series of indie and
his keyboardist/vocalist of more soulful, R&B- debut album Let Sound but not grievous omis- converging again. major labels before
George Duke; and a live based recordings. Tell All, because when sions from the original While each piece Blue Note Records
set by Zappa’s 10-piece These demos split the its ambitious array of summer release. contains its own set of picked him up in 1959.
band from the Winter- difference between styles come at you like —BRITT ROBSON musical features, the He released around 20
land Ballroom in San those and the colorful, a mosaic more than a whole 70-minute album albums for the company
Francisco in late 1972. comedic keyboardist’s melting pot, definitions can feel like a bit much before 1973, when one
There are differences jazz/fusion pairings with are moot. Sure, Rodri- PATRICIA in one burst. Brennan’s of them, Black Byrd,
from the original studio the likes of bassist Stan- guez and the peers he BRENNAN pitch-bending definitely suddenly elevated this
recordings, both sonical- ley Clarke and drummer picks to populate each More Touch adds to the music but critically appreciated but
ly and in sequencing, Billy Cobham. song revel in the strut of Pyroclastic sometimes a little more not particularly saleable
since these tracks are Zappa’s influence technique and technolo- restraint would have put trumpeter’s profile in
presented in the order is profound. The title gy. And the three songs The vibraphone and the focus on her tech- a big way. The album,
in which they were to the instrumental marimba are heading nique and writing. The produced and almost
recorded at Paramount “Psychosomatic Dung” into new musical terrain percussion instrumen- entirely written by
Studios through 1972. alone is proof, as are under the mallets of tation has built-in drive Larry Mizell, empha-
Zappa had returned his guitar contributions Patricia Brennan. In to it, yet the melodic sized Byrd’s cautious
home to Los Angeles to amid Duke’s mix of addition to her skills or dynamic qualities of move toward a funkier
recover from a broken electric piano and as a gifted improviser, the music sound similar sound and became
leg sustained when synthesizers. “Uncle she uses electronics during several tracks one of Blue Note’s
he was pushed off Remus,” co-written to bend and twist in a row. Still, it’s clear highest-charting LPs. By
the stage by an unruly with Zappa, show- the sounds that she Brennan has a bold the time he performed
audience member at cases Duke’s nimble draws out of her vibes. future ahead with the at that year’s Montreux
the Rainbow Theatre acoustic piano skills in he adds on this “deluxe The most definitive vision she displays as a Jazz Festival, Donald
in London. Confined an instrumental version edition” of the record example comes in the leader and player. Byrd, despite having
to a wheelchair, he that would appear, with originally released last soca reggae groove —MIKE SHANLEY been on the scene for
figuratively had a vocals, on Zappa’s 1974 summer lean further of “Unquiet Respect,” nearly two decades,
guitar in one hand and a into that wizardry. But where Brennan’s was enjoying the fruits
conductor’s baton in the his artistry is funda- pitch-twisting effects DONALD BYRD of true stardom for the
other throughout these mentally imbued with add to the upbeat mood Live: Cookin’ first time.
sessions. the heft of tradition and by replicating the sound with Blue Note at The Montreux
Disc 1 starts with be- a defining character of of a DJ scratching on a Montreux July 5, gig—five tracks and
hind-the-scenes banter soulfulness. turntable. 1973 band intros totaling 45
leading to the bluesy His seamless segue For More Touch, Blue Note minutes, the tape of
“Your Mouth (Take 1),” from live to studio on Brennan’s sophomore which had been lost un-
from Waka/Jawaka, the trio number “Blues release as a leader, Donald Byrd had spent til recently—reveals an
followed by a slightly in the Barn” is a neat she assembles a group
shorter alternate take gem Apostrophe. Oth- sleight-of-hand, but inspired by percussion
of that album’s lengthy ers like “Love” spotlight the thrill comes from
instrumental opener Duke’s singing; his the way his acoustic
“Big Swifty.” It features
Duke’s electric piano ex-
plorations, the deranged
contributions arguably
had as big an impact on
Zappa’s bands as the
piano phrases spiral and
snake with the creative
gusto of Bud Powell.
Scott s
trumpet of Sal Marquez,
and complex drumming
of Aynsley Dunbar. Zap-
pa’s percussion work,
bandleader through the
first half of the 1970s.
The live material is
quintessential Zappa.
On the duet “Two Way
Street,” Rodriguez
keeps his snare drum
at a steady simmer
Aural
mostly on cowbells, is
also featured in addition
to his signature guitar
“Little Dots,” with slide
guitarist Tony Duran and
drummer Jim Gordon,
while tenor Morgan
Guerin comes forth
in gusts a la Joshua quartets of her conser-
Fixation
playing. approximates “Moun- Redman—but both vatory days, while her
Instrumental tracks tain Jam” by the Allman instruments occasional- writing still leaves room Buys LP s in
from The Grand Wazoo Brothers Band, but with ly get funneled through for improvisation. The
follow—the strutting an acidic horn section a synthesizer, morphing group’s bassist, Kim excellent
“Minimal Art (Eat That including trumpeters on and off from human Cass, acts as a melodic
Question—Version 1, Gary Barone and Tom to superhero, like in a anchor but also fits in
condition with
Take 2)” and orches-
tral “Blessed Relief
Malone and trombonist
Bruce Fowler. Banner
Marvel movie. Then,
for good measure, the
well with the percussive
lineup of Brennan,
an emphasis
(Outtake Version)”— extended readings of duet is completed with Marcus Gilmore (drums) on Rock, Soul,
performed by Zappa’s both future (“Cosmik Rodriguez on piano and and Mauricio Herrera
20-piece “electric Debris”) and previously Guerin on electric bass. (percussion). Along with Modern jazz,
orchestra.” More released (“Chunga’s Two of the three more concise tracks
outtake and alternate Revenge”) faves put a songs added to the de- full of taut grooves or Blues, and
versions extend through bow on this box. luxe edition—“Chemical repetition (“Square
Disc 2, highlighted by a —BILL MEREDITH X” and “Starmaker”— Bimagic”), the quartet World Music.
15-minute “Waka/Jawa- are studio playthings, takes time in the nearly
ka” and a hysterical with samples (an air 15-minute “Space for
romp through “Cletus
Awreetus-Awrightus”
JULIUS
RODRIGUEZ
raid on the former, an
ambulance on the latter)
Hour” to feel the space
in the music before
No collection
from The Grand Wazoo.
Duke (1946-2013) was
Let Sound Tell All:
Deluxe Edition
yielding to galactic
dreamy interludes and
coming together for the
momentum of a com- too big!
part of some of Zappa’s Verve plenty of natty per- posed section. “The
best-ever ensembles cussion as Rodriguez Woman Who Weeps” Call or Email
and recordings during Julius Rodriguez satisfies his jones for presents a pensive
his 1970-1975 tenure. doesn’t want to play beats. The other tune, composed work; “El Scott at: 978-930-0395
Much of his solo output, the trite parlor game, opener “Dora’s Lullaby,” Nahualli (The Shadow
jaideeone@yahoo.com
REVIEWS
even more aggressive contributed by Shorter challenges, and, most project is their deep
“An atypical outcat”: push into the direction (“Contemplation,” importantly (as William love of the Brazilian
Avram Fefer of funk than Black Byrd “Lester Left Town”) and Blake would remind us), Songbook. Singing in
had. Leading a nine- Fuller (“Arabia”), in the “wing’d exulting swift Portuguese, Johnson
piece band that includ- classic hard-swinging delight.” renders Chico Buarque,
ed both Larry Mizell on Messengers style. —DAVID WHITEIS Antônio Carlos Jobim
synths and his brother Shorter’s solo on and Vinícius de Moraes’
Fonce on trumpet, “Moon River” sets abject lament “Olha
Byrd tapped into the the pace: This “river” AUBREY Maria” in luminous pas-
emerging fusion style is closer to a tsunami JOHNSON tels. Ingram’s love of
of the day, giving ample than the gently rippling & RANDY classical music shines
jamming space to gui- dreamscape of Mercer INGRAM through on their setting
tarist Barney Perry (who and Arlen’s original Play Favorites of Toninho Horto and
enjoys his wah-wah vision. Throughout, Sunnyside Ronaldo Bastos’s “Bons
just a little too much), Hubbard summons Amigos.” Another
Larry Mizell’s and Kevin both the technical brio Before her 2019 standout is Johnson’s
Toney’s electric keys, of old-school bebop and debut album Unraveled take on her uncle Lyle
and the rhythm section. the gospel fervor of the introduced her as a Mays’ “Quem é Você,”
The title track from burgeoning hard-bop songwriter with a keen which was introduced
“Black Byrd” opens the style; Fuller likewise ear as an arranger and as Pat Metheny Group
EDITOR’S PICK set, but it’s not until the melds acuity, imagina- composer, Aubrey John- instrumental “Close to
second number, Stevie tion, and a timbral sure- son had already earned Home” and recorded
AVRAM FEFER QUARTET ness that rivals such widespread notice with most memorably with
bop-era progenitors as her bright, crystalline Luiz Avellar’s lyric by
Juba Lee
J.J. Johnson; Walton tone and creative Milton Nascimento.
Clean Feed
exploits the percussive, It’s another sublime
If Avram Fefer is a as well as melodic and bloom in a garden,
new name to you, harmonic, capacities lovingly tended since
you are not alone. of his instrument, the mid-20th century,
His new album is creating shifting textural where jazz and Brazilian
so good it should landscapes that he then hybrids proliferate.
make us all em- negotiates effortlessly. Johnson’s harvest with
barrassed to have Wonder’s “You Got And Blakey, of course, Ingram is bountiful
missed him. it Bad Girl,” that Byrd is an unstoppable force indeed.
Fefer’s primary reminds his audience of nature. —ANDREW GILBERT
affiliation is the that it’s his trumpet Hubbard’s muted versatility via her work
avant-garde, but he is an atypical outcat. work that first attracted tenderness as he ca- supporting fellow vocal
Juba Lee is his second release with a quartet Blue Note. resses Monk’s “‘Round explorers such as Bobby MASAHIKO
that was formed when guitarist Marc Ribot As the set settles Midnight” is toughened McFerrin, Sara Serpa, TOGASHI
joined Fefer’s longstanding trio with bassist into a groove, the by his wry humor and and Sofia Rei and con- Song of Soil
Eric Revis and drummer Chad Taylor. The aggregation takes more tributions to recordings WEWANTSOUNDS
opening track, “Showtime,” a basic, rousing exploratory liberties: The by Brian Carpenter’s
anthem, sounds like a song by a bebopper trio of Byrd composi- Ghost Train Orchestra, Japanese drummer/
until Fefer blows it up with his blasting, gut- tions that round out Joe Phillips’ Numinous composer Masahiko
tural solo. He is a commanding, implacable, the set—“The East,” Ensemble, and Andrew Togashi was a brilliant,
exhilarating tenor saxophonist. “Kwame” and “”Po- Rathbun Large Ensem- tragic, ultimately
He also kills on alto. “Love Is in the Air” co-Mania”—are all on ble. Her follow-up, Play inspiring musician who
is a ballad, one of the most searing and raw fire. But then it’s over, Favorites, offers a very triumphed over serious
you will ever hear. Over Taylor’s relentless way too soon, leaving different glimpse at an obstacles in his career.
drum disturbances, Fefer slowly ascends the listener wondering artist who’s still stretch- He had already estab-
from heartfelt calls to shrieking catharsis, just what else they had the unwavering focus ing her wings. lished himself as a cre-
then subsides. in them. of his extended lines; Partnering with ative improviser when
Throughout, Fefer’s stealth weapon is —JEFF TAMARKIN Shorter’s “Contem- Randy Ingram, a pianist his wife stabbed him
Ribot, who segues seamlessly between plation” lives up to its with a gift for distilling in a fit of jealousy in
inside and outside. Whenever Ribot joins title, albeit infused with harmonic essentials, 1969, forcing him into
an ensemble as a sideman, whether Diana ART BLAKEY forward-driving impetus the duo project features a custom-designed
Krall’s or Fefer’s, he always adopts its aes- & THE JAZZ devoid of bathos; “It’s a ballad-centric program
thetic, then pushes it. MESSENGERS Only A Paper Moon” is sifted from a wide array
“Sweet Fifteen (for G.T.)” is an elegy for In Concert 1962 a flat-out romp, spiced of sources, starting with
Fefer’s close friend, the musician and writer SteepleChase by Walton’s sly insertion a beguiling take on Billie
Greg Tate, who died in 2021. It is in 15/8, of a quote from Monk’s Eilish/Finneas O’Con-
with Fefer on bass clarinet and Ribot on Recorded in Copenha- “Rhythm-a-Ning”; nell’s “My Future” that
acoustic guitar. Unexpectedly, it stays rapt gen, this set captures Shorter’s solo on Fuller’s accentuates the melo-
and inward. But it never sounds merely sad. one of the most “Arabia” is a six-min- dy’s gentle contours so
It operates in a domain you don’t expect fabled editions of the ute-plus marathon that that it could have come
Fefer to know about: peacefulness and Messengers—trum- explodes into uncharted from the pen of Sara
acceptance. peter Freddie Hubbard, realms of power and Gazarek. Equally arrest-
The showstopper is “Bedouin Dream.” saxophonist Wayne imaginative intensity. ing on standards like wheelchair for the rest
Its twitching, snaking progress is driven by Shorter, trombonist Such is the heat and “If I Should Lose You” of his life. But with a
Revis’ insidious ostinato. It is hypnotic and Curtis Fuller, pianist virtuosity these artists and “Born to Be Blue,” big heart and steely
addictive. Joined at the hip in unison, Fefer Cedar Walton, and summon that it can Johnson is particularly determination he kept
and Ribot burn the melody into the air, then the now-too-often-for- be almost exhausting striking on Joni Mitch- playing, recording this
they separate and trade incitements. If the gotten bassist Jyme listening to take them ell’s “Conversation,” recently reissued trio
world were a perfect place of justice and Merritt, along with their on their own terms and navigating the upper session from Paris
indefatigable leader—in rise to meet the bar register leaps with the with Don Cherry and
BILL WADMAN
meritocracy, “Bedouin Dream” would make

them both famous. full flight. It’s the usual they set, but it’s well liquid grace. Charlie Haden in 1979.
— thomas conrad mix of standards and worth the effort: a brac- The brightest thread With Cherry and
originals, this time ing flight of inspiration, running through the Haden joining Togashi,
there are obviously without sounding like scene that champions ed a MacArthur Fellow- Brandon Lopez patrols
echoes of Ornette a flex. Instead, his relentless innovation. ship “genius grant”) below, occasionally AMOS LEE
Coleman, but it might music’s broad diversity —MARTIN JOHNSON launches electronic stretching his sound My Ideal: A Tribute
also put you in mind makes his introspec- squirklings that smear to scratch through any to Chet Baker Sings
of Codona—anoth- tive declarations more from birdsong to run- working definition of Dualtone
er groundbreaking urgent and savvier, as SATOKO FUJII ning water to rubbery bass. Twinned drum-
exploratory trio with if he’s found the key Hyaku: One Hun- jabs. Bassoonist Sara mers Chris Corsano Chet Baker made a
Don Cherry, Nana to a special sort of dred Dreams Schoenbeck pushes and Tom Rainey set out number of classics
Vasconcelos, and inspiration. Libra Records her axe, unconven- involved statements— throughout his brief,
Collin Walcott—which His latest recording, tional for jazz, into the affirming the sensible, cruel life, but his debut
released their first Certain Reveries, is Staggering to con- warm, rounded tone meticulous side of vocal album, Chet Baker
album for ECM that the leanest of his template, but Satoko of the French horn, their craft, drumming Sings, might be his
same year. recent efforts, and Fujii marks 100 records before a return to roots and dueting as the summit. Nobody had
The music has the circumstances as a leader with this woodsiness. formal presentation of ever sung like him:
spiritual elements and of the composition release—dating back a position paper. boyish, crystalline, with
they know how to let may have had a little to 1996’s Something I hadn’t heard much a minimum of inflection.
the music breathe. to do with that. The About Water, with Paul of tenor player Ingrid And few trumpeters
On “Rain,” Cherry is music was conceived Bley. She celebrates Laubrock before this before or since have
darting, like a restless as a single longform alongside eight of her set, but her boldly gotten to the heart of
bee. Haden is earthy, piece, composed for favorite collaborators, rough tone and fierce a melody with such
woody, dark and deep. Gay and percussionist and while the resulting intelligence set her an economy of notes.
Sadly, this track fades Chris Strong, and it “One Hundred apart. The players tend While communing with
out at 8:10 (wonder was presented as part Dreams” suite (in five to venture out alone, or Chet Baker Sings during
how long they kept of the EFG London parts) lacks the splen- in small groups, avoid- lockdown, Amos Lee
going?). On the title Livestream festival in did cacophony found ing that fierce noise seemed to connect
track, Togashi releases 2020. There was to be in much free jazz, it Wadada Leo Smith ensembles of this type with all this and more.
the snarewires under- a film accompanying more than compen- and Natuski Tamara might generate. But Recorded in a single
neath his snare drum, the piece showing Gay sates with collective (Fujii’s husband and on such a venerable session with pianist
giving it a tribal sound, alone in his Chicago intelligence. frequent collaborator) occasion, such tactics and trumpeter David
especially effective apartment. However, Fujii sets off her run down extended make sense. Each Streim, bassist Madi-
with Cherry’s recorder the music was also own set, seemingly techniques of mutters, performer is to be son Rast and drummer
noodling on top. combining form with curses, intones, and savored, like iterations Anwar Marshall, My
“June” starts busily, content as lines spiral chants behind the of fine liquors. Each Ideal: A Tribute to
then the time starts to and spark all the way mouthpiece, vocalese section submits one Chet Baker Sings hits
expand and flow as the down her keyboard. pushed through the building block to the a sweet spot, where
music takes in oxygen. Japanese expat Ikue resonant frequencies esteemable whole. it’s not a wholesale
Cherry plays with an Mori (who just collect- of their horns. Bassist —ANDREW HAMLIN reimagining nor a brick-
occasional exagger-
ated vibrato, as on
“Oasis,” but then the
trio starts collectively
swirling in a vibrant inspired by the great,
sound painting. boisterous music of
Togashi continued saxophonist Eddie
making inspired Harris, though the
recordings with Paul connection is abstract
Bley, Steve Lacy, Al- at best.
bert Mangelsdorff, Ma- Certain Reveries
shiko Sato, Masabumi opens with electron-
Kikuchi, and his own ically altered music
group J.J. Spirits with that sounds like field
Kosuke Mine. May he recordings on the
become better known
to discerning jazz fans
opening track, “You
Ain’t Never Lied.”
JUNE 24–JULY 8, 2023
and collectors. Then it shifts to drum
—LARRY APPELBAUM and cornet duets Faculty:
on “Parade Debris.” Todd Coolman–Artistic Director and bass
Gay’s cornet recalls Bill Cunliffe–piano
BEN LAMAR the puckish precision
GAY of Lester Bowie with Steve Davis–trombone
Certain Reveries a side helping of Michael Dease–trombone
International Anthem Wadada Leo Smith Mimi Fox– guitar
introspection. The
Chicago-based two approaches Jimmy Greene–saxophone
polymath Ben LaMar converge nicely on Bob Halek– drums
Gay makes music “The Biolumines- Clay Jenkins– trumpet
that is austere and cence of Nakedness”
sprawling. Like many and “Agua Futurism” Dennis Mackrel– drums
musicians of his demonstrating both John Nazarenko– audio engineering
generation, he regards depth and elegance. Mike Rodriguez–trumpet
genre boundaries with Overall, the recording
something bordering and its recent prede- Dave Stryker– guitar
on contempt. His cessors, Open Arms Steve Wilson–saxophone
music gracefully to Open Us and East
moves through jazz, of the Ryan, establish Director: Brian Carucci
post-rock, Brazilian, Gay as another
electronic, and about a ambitious outpost www.skidmore.edu/summerjazz | 518-580-5447
half dozen other styles in a Chicago music
REVIEWS
by-brick recreation. nist Ran Blake includes new blood into ma-
Lee successfully gets a two-volume tribute terial that transcends
inside the soul of focusing on Lincoln’s the fraught times that
these songs, like “Like original songs, 2012’s called it forth.
Someone in Love,” Down Here Below —ANDREW GILBERT
“But Not for Me” and and 2015’s The Road
Baker’s signature song, Keeps Winding. Correa
“My Funny Valentine.” explores some of the AVI GRANITE
Sometimes within the same material on Just In Good Hands
span of a single track, You Stand and Listen Pet Mantis
his vocal chops prove With Me, but where
seemingly perfect for the earlier albums If ever there was a
the tunes, only to err sustained drama with launchpad to immerse
on the thin side. the contrast between oneself in Canada’s
But nitpicking My the heft and peppery creative jazz and vibrant
Ideal bar by bar would grain of Correa’s voice
miss the point: Lee’s and Blake’s spacious
but closely observed
accompaniment, Just
You Stand brings
urgent intensity to
material created in the
civil rights movement’s
crucible.
Her formidable
quartet features pianist scene, Toronto guitarist
Andrew Boudreau, and composer Avi Gran-
obvious reverence for bassist Kim Cass, ite is the ideal place to
the material shines drummer Michael start. Although Granite
through. (Although that Sarin, and soprano has called New York City
could have extended to saxophonist Sam New- his homebase for quite
not changing the line some, who serves as some time, his musical
“sweet, comic valen- an agitated, stimulating heart is seemingly
tine” to “sick, twisted interlocutor for Correa. informed by and driven
“Gripping emoting”: Lakecia Benjamin valentine”; Baker’s The project centers on in part by his Canadian
reading was creeping We Insist!, covering all peers. Granite’s adven-
and crepuscular as is.) five songs on Roach’s turous new set arrives
EDITOR’S PICK A Bob Dylan quote with the very fittingly
apropos his Sina- titled In Good Hands
LAKECIA BENJAMIN tra-covering 2010s because that’s exactly
Phoenix period comes to mind: what it is: the perfect
Whirlwind
“When you start doing realization of invaluable
these songs, Frank’s creative relationships
Between her get-up-and-go and her prodigious got to be on your and a shared inspiration.
talent, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin mind…. That’s the In Good Hands
hasn’t made any serious creative missteps. In mountain you have to collects a hodgepodge
particular, her well-received John and Alice climb, even if you only of Granite’s original
Coltrane tribute album, 2020’s Pursuance: The get part of the way epochal 1960 Candid compositions, a handful
Coltranes, featured leading lights from Ron there.” Lee doesn’t album, with “Triptych: of which have never
Carter to Reggie Workman to Meshell Ndgeo- make it all the way to Prayer, Protest, Peace” been recorded and
cello, and showed both the depth of Benjamin’s the top of his chosen standing out as an others plucked from
reverence for her forebears and rising cachet in mountain; no one elemental supplication. past albums. He then
the NYC jazz world. can. But if you have Correa also interprets put the 11 tunes “in the
After that, Benjamin suffered a throttling lockdown, as well as a car any interest in either the biting “Mendaci- good hands” (I did say it
accident that could have ended her life. Which brings us to the aptly titled the interpreter or his ty” and the wordless was a stellar title) of 11
Phoenix, which is arguably Benjamin’s most accomplished work to date. subject, Lee’s sizable lament “Garvey’s of his fellow Canadian
Like Pursuance, Phoenix is packed with guests, from activist talent and purity of Ghost,” Lincoln’s two musicians in exclusively
Angela Davis to a spoken-word section from saxophone luminary intention make My contributions on 1961’s solo performances.
Wayne Shorter. It’s understandable why Benjamin and producer Terri Ideal a must-hear. Percussion Bitter The results are truly a
Lyne Carrington might fill the album with influences and colleagues: —MORGAN ENOS Sweet. Her recitation revelation as Granite’s
both to place the artist in a particular lineage and provide an enticing of Maya Angelou’s richly melodic pieces
selling point. “Caged Bird” is a are transformed and re-
Still, the fact remains: It’s all window dressing, and going forward, CHRISTINE tour de force, but the imagined in solo guise.
Benjamin doesn’t need it. CORREA album’s standout track, Many of Granite’s
No, you don’t pick up Phoenix in the hopes that a more famous Just You Stand and both for Correa’s inter- bandmates, both in
figure will pop up. Nor do you do so for the social commentary added Listen With Me pretive skills and solos Toronto and New York,
by Carrington in post-production, like the sirens and gunshots in Sunnyside by Boudreau and New- are entrusted with rein-
“Amerikkan Skin.” You listen to hear her play the horn, full stop. some, is also the only terpreting his songs and
Benjamin’s gripping emoting on “Trane,” slotted all the way at Christine Correa, a apolitical piece: Lionel each bring their own
track 10, speaks volumes in this regard. It’s at least spiritually con- vocalist with an ex- Bart’s “Who Will Buy?” uniquely heady perspec-
nected to the guest-stuffed Pursuance; it shouts out arguably the most tensive, distinguished Collected together, tive to In Good Hands.
famous saxophonist of all time. But in the end, you’re not thinking of track record tackling these songs gather “Like A Magazine” (a
John or Alice or anyone else. You’re thinking of Benjamin, and what challenging material, force and continue to high-spirited Mingusian
ELIZABETH LEITZELL
all this means to her. is no stranger to the speak to the struggle track from 2019’s Orbit)
Lakecia Benjamin is no longer emerging. She’s emerged. And it’s music of Abbey Lin- for full equality. It’s not takes on a whole new
time to hear her unfettered voice. coln. Her prolific and an album I expect to intimate life as tenor
— morgan enos long-running creative return to regularly, but saxophonist Pat LaBar-
partnership with pia- it cuts deeply, pumping bera slow-burns his way
through it with a warm Allen, Hancock, Shorter, Octet—a recording at pianist Farid Barron, Munich (and his subse-
and arresting tone. and Jarrett onto his trio’s Smalls Jazz Club with drummer Wayne Smith, JOE FIEDLER quent album Trombirds).
Drummer Ted Warren readings of their work; Allen as its featured and percussionists Solo/The Howland The 1972 festival
gives a dizzily complex his own musings are guest—he gets his Ron McBee and Elson Sessions marked the first time a
percussion workout included as well, as are generous cake from Nacimento, Mitchell Multiphonics ’bone player took to the
to the new piece “19 the recollections of the a fellow free traveler, arranges the octet and stage alone, inspiring
Seconds Or Less,” late vocalist, producer, dollops on the icing, Allen not so much as The word “funky” does others such as George
while Nick Fraser spins and promoter Meghan eats it, then goes for if they were playing not get applied to a solo Lewis, Steve Swell, and
abstract beauty with the Stabile in “From a Flick- seconds. things straight. Rather, horn album very often. Walter Wierbos to ex-
sticks on Orbit’s “Critical er to a Flame,” which is Mitchell’s last angular Ra tracks such Yet a low-down groove plore the format. Rather
Eddie.” Meanwhile, dedicated to her, and a album, 2022’s Dancing as “Love in Outer runs through “The Jack than pay homage,
guitarist Ted Quinlan’s snippet of Max Roach Shadows, also featured Space” and “Fate in a Rabbit,” the opening Fiedler takes Mangels-
“Like John” (taken from declaring his distaste for Allen and Ra songs— Pleasant Mood” get air track of Joe Fiedler’s dorff’s conception as
Snow Umbrellas) is the racist implications along with Thelonious to breathe without their solo trombone recital. a chance to display his
a particularly glorious of the word “jazz” as Monk’s “Skippy”—both usual claustrophobic, Even when he strays
dose of bluesy jazz a prelude to Payton’s circus instrumentation. from the rhythmic kick
goodness. “Jazz Is A Four-Letter While the funk of and moves into more of
With other Granite Word,” a reprise of Monk’s “Skippy” is a solo section, the pulse
band regulars like trom- a piece he originally given more slippery lingers on. A similar bit
bonist Tom Richards, showcased on 2017’s soulfulness than on its of funk threads through
bassist Neal Davis, and Afro-Caribbean Mixtape. hard, rhythmic studio “Stinger” as Fielder
flugelhornist Jim Lewis The “healing” here version, Allen’s “New delves into, a guttural
pitching in, Avi Granite’s is reflected in the pro- Dawn”—penned for tone, buzzing through
latest lives up to its title foundly spiritual sense the Arkestra album Of the stinger mute that
on this terrific outside- of honoring elders and Abstract Dreams and inspired the song, and
the-box program. ancestors that mani- as their calmest and initially recorded with sounding like one of own complex blend of
—BRAD COHAN fests itself in the song most clamorous. This strings—finds the spry, those Muppets he technique and ideas.
selection, the inclusion time out, however, any menacing saxophonist knows from his day Throughout the album,
of the composers’ clamor you hear comes and the intuitive, cush- job as a Sesame Street he uses multiphonics,
NICHOLAS words in their own without Ra’s famed ion-y bassist at spare, music director. blowing through his
PAYTON voices, and the princi- carnival kaleidoscopic lean, mean interplay. Solo/The Howland horn and vocalizing at
The Couch Sessions pals’ obvious dedication parade vibe. For this A fine friendship and Sessions was inspired the same time, creating
Smoke Sessions to nurture the living live gig with tenor sax- mentorship between by the 50th anniversary a rich texture.
legacy of what Chica- ophonist Chris Heming- Mitchell and Allen of German trombonist “The Long No”
The title of this album, go’s AACM (reflecting way, alto saxophonist is truly part of this Albert Mangelsdorff’s presents one of the
Nicholas Payton has Roach’s aversion to the Nicoletta Manzini, trum- journey. solo performance at the most riveting works; the
said, reflects the idea word “jazz”) call “Great peter Giveton Gelin, —A.D. AMOROSI Jazz Now! Festival in three-part piece starts
that “music is therapy . . Black Music, Ancient
. Lie on the couch, relax to the Future.” In that
. . . and hopefully this spirit, Meghan Stabile
music [can] provide a gets the final word: “I
healing.” Such a mission am a representative of
statement might imply the vision . . . I feel like
cloying or preciousness, it will outlive me.”
but in fact the music —DAVID WHITEIS
here—featuring Payton
on piano, Rhodes,
and clavinet as well as TYLER
trumpet, along with MITCHELL
bassist Buster Williams Sun Ra’s Journey FEBRUARY‫ڑ‬ԏԖ՞ԐԔջ‫ڑ‬ԐԎԐԒ‫ڑڑ‬ŶŀžƙĘīTջ‫ڑ‬OR
and drummer Lenny Cellar/SmallsLIVE
White—is bracing as
well as soothing. The
set includes offerings
If you had to pick
what period would be
from the oeuvres of
Geri Allen, Herbie
a 98-year-old man’s
busiest, you would
Hancock, Wayne not normally choose
Shorter, Benny Golson, the most recent
three years of his
time on Earth. And
yet, here is Marshall
Allen—the leader of !
Sun Ra’s Arkestra
who picked up the

baton when its "#
originator departed
from this hemisphere

in 1993—readying
and Keith Jarrett, as Arkestra gigs and
well as both Payton and solo events in which
Williams. to showcase his tal-
_ƙƥžÅī‫ڑ‬ԗԔ֡‫ڑ‬ ƙÅIĎ_ƙƋ‫ڑ‬԰‫ڑ‬Åīŀր
A distinctive facet of ents as saxophonist,
PERFORMANCES! PDXJAZZ.ORG
this production is the kora player, flautist,
presence of spo- and electronic wind
ken-word intros to many instrumentalist (EWI).
of the tracks. Payton With Sun Ra’s
has grafted samples Journey from bassist
from interviews with Tyler Mitchell and his
REVIEWS
off like a ballad rising from Matt Gold. The but Home involves far musicians on the De-
from the two tones. Brooklyn performance, more than the usual troit jazz scene and
Over a pedal note, which also cuts back role of accompaniment. has performed with
he adds a wah-wah on McCraven’s drum For much of the album a plethora of national
attack, blurring the prominence, uses a lon- Song Yi interacts with artists such as R&B
line between his voice ger, more graceful arc Gomes sans lyrics; take singer/songwriter Kem,
and his instrument. via Brandee Younger’s her acrobatic wordless guitarist Tim Bowman,
Although the blend of harp, the string quartet, vocals on “Dancing and trumpeter Willie
pitches can be harsh and either an EWI Stars,” one of her im- Bradley. Aside from
at first, they produce from De’Sean Jones or pressive originals. Fea- his work as a sideman,
a full sound that make something McCraven turing her Korean lyrics, Nabors has released a
you forget this is a solo had programmed on “Expecting Spring” is number of acclaimed al-
performance. computer. a sprightly melody that bums, including 2021’s
—MIKE SHANLEY Two other selec- builds to a supple echo Perseverance, which
tions—“Dream Anoth- of Jobim’s “Double tackled his experiences
er” and “Lullaby”—are during the turbulence
MAKAYA both exquisite and of 2020.
“Meditative, warm, insular, even McCRAVEN relatively faithful to His fifth release,
spongy”: Marcus Strickland International the album. But the Evolution, is inspired by
Anthem @Public best reason to pick up his days studying with
EDITOR’S PICK Records (Volume 3) International Anthem @ legendary pianist and
Qobuz Public Records (Volume educator Geri Allen at
MARCUS STRICKLAND 3) is for the rendition of the University of Mich-
TWI-LIFE Makaya McCraven likes “This Place That Place.” igan. The compositions
The Universe’s Wildest Dream to keep his catalog in The pizzicato from the are direct evidence of
Strick Muzik flux. Although his latest, strings is more forceful, Rainbow.” Her ethereal Nabors’ progression as
most lauded project, McCraven turns up legato melody “A Lone- a composer, producer,
This mesmeriz- In These Times, was the rhythmic heat, and some Place” sets the arranger, and pianist
ing album bears presented upon its fall Jones engages him scene for “A Timeless since that time and
repeated plays release as his magnum via a squalling tenor Place,” the Jimmy could be called a tribute
without fully re- opus, offshoots and sax showcase down Rowles standard with of sorts to his late, great
vealing its secrets; alternatives were the stretch. Suddenly Norma Winstone lyrics mentor. Off the bat,
a meditative, inevitable. Hence these In These Times they that’s become a go-to Nabors entices the lis-
warm, insular, four selections from In are a’changing, and set piece for ambitious teners with a seductive
even spongy re- These Times, performed the sound of surprise vocalists. Song Yi groove in “Mesmerize”
cording that’s as live at Brooklyn’s becomes the perfect navigates the wending based on a mixed meter
immersive as it is beautiful, like a small pod intimate Public Records aperitif for the project. narrative with requisite with a bass ostinato.
both circling earth and protecting it with venue four days before —BRITT ROBSON drama and restraint, “Strollin’ Down
love and care. its late September almost whispering the Blaine” slows things
The Universe’s Wildest Dream is led release and available key line “Beauty’s only down a bit, with a much
by veteran saxophonist and composer exclusively on Qobuz, SONG YI JEON an illusion.” more mellow vibe
Marcus Strickland, joined by Mitch Henry & VINICIUS Gomes contributes influenced by his time
(keyboards), Kyle Miles (bass), and Charles GOMES two other originals, playing in church. Na-
Haynes (drums), with guests including gui- Home the exultant, wordless bors sought to replicate
tarist Lionel Loueke and vocalists Christie Greenleaf opener “Eleventh
Dashiell and Ras Stimulant. House” and the
Employing sensitive solos, electronic On Song Yi Jeon’s atmospheric, melis-
beats, cushioned grooves, and atmospher- first two albums, the matic “Flow,” which
ic production, the music could qualify South Korean vocalist at seven minutes is
for Quiet Storm status, or a long-lost recorded in quartet the album’s longest
George Duke work from his post-Zappa, settings that show- track. The shortest is
pre-commercial period. Even after 10 a streaming and down- cased her wondrous a sublime two-and-a-
plays, the music deepens: odd samples, loading service that voice and creativity as a half-minute version of
evocative solos, spoken word queries, and caters to audiophiles. composer and arranger. Keith Jarrett’s “Prism”
blissful sounds give the album a feeling of First off, the sound Her new album, Home, that feels like it was the feeling of church
mystery, a conspiracy theory in jazz/soul/ quality is indeed superb, is a very different kind lifted from a chamber members strolling
electronic sound. with immaculate of project, though her ensemble. The album down the aisle during
In “Prayer,” a voice intones “the wealth- separation between the previous work provides closes with Domin- service, so he set the
iest earthlings plan to discover, sample and instruments played by hints at where she’s guinhos’s forró anthem tune to a smoother
profit from random minerals and elements the live octet, including heading. Her group on “Nilopolitano” taken at beat; bass and piano
scattered throughout the void beyond,” as a string quartet. Sec- 2015’s Straight included a brisk clip, with Song take center stage.
Strickland’s bass clarinet intones intergalac- ond, the personnel does São Paulo guitarist Yi singing the melody On each track,
tic mischief. Here and elsewhere, the notion not include a pianist or Leandro Pellegrino in tight tandem with Nabors’ goal is to
of earth as singular, without parallel in the guitarist, one reason while 2018’s Move- Gomes’ guitar. It’s a bit bring the listener on a
universe, is given weight. The mellifluous McCraven refers to the ment of Lives featured of casual virtuosity that wide-ranging excursion,
robo-funk of “Dust Ball Fantasy” and “In- material as “pared- Rio-born pianist Vitor shows this party is just experiencing a myriad
finity” recall Miles Davis’ Decoy. Alex Jones down versions” of the Gonçalves. Home is getting started. of emotions. He does
is heard ranting below in “Black Matter,” as songs on the album, a duo collaboration —ANDREW GILBERT just that on every
a joyous song, a celebration, rises above. The even though each with Brazilian guitarist song, especially on
hop-skipping “Joy for Jupiter” closes the al- of the four composi- Vinicius Gomes, and it the expressive tune
bum, Strickland writing “If there’s anything tions is longer in live ranks among the year’s DEMETRIUS “Mourning Widow,”
making you gloomy, remind yourself that performance. That’s felt best releases. NABORS which features a mix of
there’s a huge planet with 79 moons protect- most keenly on “The Gomes is a rising Evolution turbulent yet graceful
PETRA RICHTEROVA
ing inner planets such as Earth from comets Knew Untitled,” which star himself with DKN melodies via strings,
and asteroids with its gravitational field. In on the studio version extensive experience and Andrew Bishop on
other words, ‘it’s not the end of the world.’” features a ballerina-like backing vocalists such Pianist and composer clarinet.
— ken micallef piano entry and a as Rosa Passos, Jane Demetrius Nabors All of the songs on
memorable guitar solo Duboc, and Zizi Possi, is one of the go-to Evolution are Nabors
originals, except for the takes it over. In this enigmatic allure of his
John Coltrane standard 42-minute multidimen- music remains fully FRANK
“Giant Steps.” Nabors’ sional work, Reijonen, intact, but you certainly CARLBERG
arrangement of that as composer/arranger, leave this album know- TRIO
tune gives it a smoother has many sonorities ing more about the Reflections 1952
jazz feel, and Detroit available. He blends man and his muses. 577
saxophonist Desean the colors boldly. The Opening with “For
Jones, also a Coltrane music sounds both Tim Smith,” Weiss During the 1950s
head, does an amazing personal and majestic. nods to the founder Pablo Picasso turned his
job tackling the difficult Its first impression of prog-punk band attention to some of the
chord changes through- is power, when the Cardiacs through direct major figures of art his-
out the piece. ensemble, with harmonic engage- tory, reinterpreting their
—VERONICA JOHNSON its two drummers ment and imaginative work through his own
thundering, hits full twists. Later, he plays distinctive lens. Most
force. Yet there are the praises of other notably, he undertook
JUSSI many moments when musical inspirations. a series of paintings
REIJONEN Reijonen’s expansive In a serpentine based on Velázquez’s
Three Seconds/ sonic world contracts commendation for Las Meninas, crafting
Kolme Toista to fine details: Sidiq’s Conlon Nancarrow nearly 60 pieces that
Challenge violin softly keening on (and his Studies for obsessively examined,
“Transient”; Reijonen’s Player Piano), overlaid deconstructed, and
Even in our present guitar alone in the time cycles create a reconfigured the original
jazz moment, when open spaces of “The dizzying foundational masterpiece.
the art form is world- Weaver”; Palmer’s Frank Carlberg doesn’t
wide and vital, albums trumpet announce- explicitly mention
that come as complete ments on “Verso.” Picasso in reference
surprises are relatively The variety of ethnic- to Reflections 1952.
rare. Three Seconds/ ities and instruments The album looks back
Kolme Toista is a makes for a unique, on a pair of sessions
stunner. heady mix. Among this from that year where
Jussi Reijonen has album’s many revela- Monk was joined by
released only one tions is the gradual re- bassist Gary Mapp and
previous recording (un, alization that it truly is either Art Blakey or
nine years ago). He is a suite. That enigmatic design. Bowing to Burt Max Roach on drums
a Finnish guitarist and theme at the beginning Bacharach, the trio (eventually released on
oud player who has recurs throughout, deals in deceptively Prestige as Thelonious
also lived in Jordan, albeit sometimes simple soundcraft. Monk Trio). Yet the
Tanzania, Oman, Leb- subliminally. When it Drawing from Elvin interpretations rendered
anon, and the United returns explicitly, like Jones’ deft drumming by Carlberg, along with
States. It is possible at the end of “Verso,” (beside John Coltrane drummer Francisco
that no one has ever it is a rush. This album on the saxophonist’s Mela and bassist John
assembled a nonet is a single, unified, “One Down, One Up”
quite like the one here. diverse, overwhelming from Live at the Half
statement. Note), Weiss offers
—THOMAS CONRAD a seminar in building
percussive bridges
with phraseology. And,
DAN WEISS finding an honoree
TRIO within the ranks, he
Dedication spotlights Sacks with
Cygnus an angular panora-
ma of the pianist’s Hébert, are undertaken
Each of the three wide-ranging skills. in the same prismatic
There are three Ameri- previous outings from Eyeing the silver Cubist spirit.
cans (trumpeter Jason next-level drummer screen, Weiss taps into Carlberg and his trio
Palmer, drummer Dan Weiss’ long-run- spiritual and celestial approach the material
Vancil Cooper, bassist ning piano trio proved veins in saluting direc- from a variety of oblique
Kyle Miles), two Turks to be consistently tor Andrei Tarkovsky. angles: “Spherical
(trombonist Bulut inventive and engross- Making a rare political Nightmares,” for
Gülen, pianist Utar Ar-
tun), a Jordanian/Iraqi
ing, stretching the
fabric of jazz’s most
statement, the drum-
mer addresses the
instance, does little
more than hint at the
UPCOMING
(violinist Layth Sidiq),
a Palestinian (cellist
lived-in format. This
latest entry, continu-
murder of George Floyd
and all that surrounded
sharp-edged melody of
“Monk’s Dream,” as if
GUESTS
Naseem Alatrash), and ing to highlight the it. And looking closer it’s being recomposed
a Japanese (percus-
sionist Keita Ogawa).
fathomless connection
between the leader,
to home, he creates
circles of warmth,
from a distant memory.
“Azure Sphere” slows SAMA RA J OY
Three Seconds is pianist Jacob Sacks, love, and tenderness in the theme of “Blue
a five-part suite that and bassist Thomas separate dedications to Monk” to an ominous PAS QUALE G RASSO
grips you from the Morgan, is equally his six-year-old daughter crawl, while Mela’s
opening notes of the compelling. Working Vivienne and late vocal chants help turn M ARTI N S HOR E
first movement, “The his way through a grandmother May. With “Bemsha Swing” into
Veil.” A haunting, series of tributes Dedication, Dan Weiss the mesmerizing “Bem-
premonitory fanfare is to family members, paints expansive por- sha Cubano.”
introduced by Miles on artistic influences, and traits that say as much Standards are given
On NPR and your
arco bass. That theme a figure of importance about the gravity of his similar treatment, with favorite podcast
becomes a dramatic in the broader sphere, art as they do about the “Sweet and Lovely”
looming presence Weiss opens up more people he recognizes. patchworked through a platform or at
when the whole band than ever before. The —DAN BILAWSKY Monkish kaleidoscope jazzinspired.com
REVIEWS
and “These Foolish suggests familiarity performance. solo after an actual hot one David Frishberg
Things” crystallized and comfort. Joining Granted, it’s hard to YVONNICK trumpet player. No prob- tune (“Peel Me a
into a stark solo piano Person for the session find a Fitzgerald title PRENÉ lem. He is quick-on-quick, Grape” at just the right
rumination. The sam- are guitarist Russell from this period where Listen! and flawless. tempo). Few singers
pled voice of poet Paul Malone, pianist Larry she wasn’t in top form, Sunnyside But the song that have ever conveyed the
Lichter is added to the Fuller, bassist Matthew so perhaps In Concert most fully reveals the gobsmacked impact of
collage on two tracks, Parrish, and drummer is just par for the Yvonnick Prené, originally unique capabilities of the a crush as mischievous-
reciting Monk quotes Lewis Nash. They work course. But what a par. from Paris, now from chromatic harmonica is ly as Dearie, a sensation
on “Reflecting Reflec- well together—no big Her flawless flower of New York, is on the very “She’s Funny That Way.” that Donnay conjures
tions” and puns on the surprises here—and, a voice coats each song short list of major living Lester Young’s version is with the Carolyn Leigh/
iconic pianist’s name with Person self-pro- like a soothing balm; jazz harmonica players. considered definitive, but Cy Coleman gems “You
from various writers on ducing, come up with only on close listening Because of its rarity Prené’s is more poignant. Fascinate Me So” and
“Nicknames,” a refrac- 10 numbers that both do we hear details like in jazz, it is natural to His interpretation proves “It Amazes Me.” She
tion of “Little Rootie emphasize the leader’s her masterful rubato think of the chromatic that no instrument can also makes a compel-
Tootie.” Singer Priya undiminished skills and on “You Brought Me harmonica as a novelty tug at your heart with ling case for the revival
Carlberg, daughter of class, and showcase A New Kind of Love” instrument. But Listen! yearning quite like a of the rarely covered
the pianist and vocalist the musicians’ rapport. or the delicately sung makes you take this chromatic harmonica in tunes “Moonlight Sav-
Christine Correa, pro- The tracks, for the syllables of “Lady Be device seriously and revel the hands of a master. ings Time” and “Spring
vides a haunting read most part, are also in its unique, rich, alluring —THOMAS CONRAD in Manhattan.”
of “Just a Gigolo” for familiar: Rodgers and sonorities. When Prené If there’s anything
two separate renditions Hart’s “My Romance,” plays the chromatic
that embody the elegiac Henry Mancini’s “Moon harmonica, it becomes ROBERTA
regret at the core of the River,” Cole Porter’s “At a fully articulate vehicle DONNAY
song. Monk tributes Long Last Love.” But for authentic emotional Blossom-ing!
abound, but Carlberg there are a few that expression. Village Jazz Café
takes a fresh approach give Person and his He is a nonconformist
that both honors and ensemble opportunities instrumentally but a A San Francisco Bay
dissects its source. to stretch, and they are traditionalist stylistically. Area mainstay, vocalist
—SHAUN BRADY among the highlights. Good” (here even His native tongue is Roberta Donnay has
A Cedar Walton tune, slower than on her hard bop. His preferred earned an avid following
“I’ll Let You Know,” then-recent Gershwin ensemble format is over the past quarter missing, it’s more
HOUSTON elicits a breathy, dreamy Songbook album). But the classic trumpet/ century with a repertoire by Dearie herself.
PERSON solo from Person there are also delights tenor saxophone quintet focusing on pre-bop Donnay includes one
Reminiscing at and gives Fuller, in right on the surface: (think Miles Davis, treasures. Her 13th of her best pieces, the
Rudy’s particular, all the space “All Right, Okay, You Horace Silver, the Jazz release, Blossom-ing! bossa-tinged “Inside
High Note he needs to reimagine Win” is loaded with Messengers). Of course, covers a whole different a Silent Tear” (with
Walton’s piano parts. Fitzgerald’s famous ad in Prené’s band, the musical realm, and it’s Peter King), but Dearie
At the age of 88, Hous- Percy Mayfield’s classic libs in both scat and harmonica replaces the a particularly felicitous produced a wealth of
ton Person remains 1950 blues ballad, lyric (“He got eyes like trumpet. pairing. With her small, songs with some great
a reliably consistent “Please Send Me diamonds, teeth shine It is striking how pliable, deceptively lyricists, like Jack Segal
interpreter of song. Someone to Love,” is like yellow gold—FORT natural a harmonica (with sweet sound, Donnay (“Good-Bye Country
He has never been a perfect vehicle not KNOX!”) its similar range) sounds possesses an ideal Boy”) and Johnny Mer-
particularly extreme or only for Person and The album’s jewel in the trumpet chair. The instrument to evoke the cer (“I’m Shadowing
outrageous, preferring Fuller but for Malone’s is an on-point reading other strong players here wit of Blossom Dearie, You”).
to keep his cool: His oh-so-sweet guitar. of “Whatever Lola are Dayna Stephens, Kev- the sui generis vocalist —ANDREW GILBERT
tenor saxophone is And even Paul Anka’s Wants.” Fitzgerald in Hays, Clovis Nicholas, and pianist whose cult
unfailingly expressive, perpetually schmaltzy melds with precision and Bill Stewart. There following gradually ex-
his melodies rarely stray “Put Your Head on My to Gus Johnson’s are three tracks associ- panded upon her return JOHNNY
Shoulder” is redeemed drums, then guitarist ated with Miles Davis. to New York City after a HAMMOND
in these hands, quite Ellis melds with preci- “Dig” (from Miles’s mid-1950s Paris sojourn. Gears
lovely when stripped sion to Fitzgerald; they 1951 Prestige album of Instead of the horn-lad- Jazz Dispensary
down to its most basic hold the line through en arrangements found
attributes. more of Ella’s rubato, on most of Donnay’s Before the onslaught
—JEFF TAMARKIN flourishes and growls, recordings Blossom-ing! of 1970s disco-jazz
moving on a dime features a nimble rhythm and the flywheel
into high gear when section with bassist Ruth Latin-laced dance
ROY ELDRIDGE the song becomes a Davies, drummer Mark music of the Salsoul
QUARTET/ELLA medley with “Who’s Lee, São Paulo-reared Orchestra and Dr.
far, and regardless of FITZGERALD Got the Pain?” guitarist José Neto, and Buzzard’s Original
the configuration he’s QUINTET Does that make pianist Mike Greensill, Savannah Band, the
working with at the In Concert the Eldridge tunes who’s the album’s secret production team of
moment, his tone and SteepleChase throwaways? Hardly. that name, with Sonny sauce. He spent some Larry and Fonce Mizell
feel are recognizably Both “Soft Winds” and Rollins) is a bold choice, four decades as accom- were adding string ar-
his own. Roy Eldridge’s name the rhythm-changes a flat-out burner. Prené panist, arranger, and hus- rayments and four-on-
That’s not to say he’s on this disc is a bit “Roy’s Riff” are brilliant nails it. “Mystic Minor” band of the late, beloved the-floor rhythms to its
lacking in any way. of a red herring. showcases for his is a Prené original, but it jazz/cabaret singer Wesla charges for maximum
With a discography The trumpeter plays serrated-edge trumpet recalls Miles’s “All Blues.” Whitfield, and he swings dancefloor exposure.
that now reportedly the first two songs, sound and timeless Victor Feldman’s “Seven with gentle authority One such client was
exceeds 75 albums as a accompanied by the swing, the former Steps to Heaven” was that serves Donnay, Kentucky-born Johnny
leader, Person has rarely same band that will doubling as a feature composed for Miles. The who co-arranged all the “Hammond” Smith,
misfired. His latest, back Ella Fitzgerald for Ellis’s surprisingly clever arrangement by tracks, marvelously well. the Hammond B-3
Reminiscing at Rudy’s, on the remainder of caustic guitar. (He and Steve Feifke maximizes Part of what makes jazz organist who had
is no exception. As its the program. Make no Eldridge are a magical the tune’s essential the album delightful is been adding swampy
title implies, the set mistake: This recording combination). Good quality of celebration. the range of material. Southern soul to his
was recorded in a single belongs to the First as they are, though, The producer of Listen!, Some usual suspects post-postbop diet
day at the Van Gelder Lady of Song, who’s in they’re appetizers. Ella trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, are apprehended with since his earliest Pres-
Studio in New Jersey, a top form for this May is the main course. plays on this track—and style, but she casts a tige label sides, 1959’s
place whose very name 1959 Copenhagen —MICHAEL J. WEST smokes it. Prené has to wide net, including only That Good Feelin’ and
1960’s Talk That Talk. horn to her lips, the Records’ Renewal Col- Kimbrell have refined
Unafraid of lushly sound of hope, warmth, lection, Full Circle is in their craft since their
stringed things and and light emerges. good company with al- shambolic 2019 debut
sprightly melodic funk, That’s made clear on bums from pianist Elan Smeared Pulse Trans-
the Mizell Brothers her previous proj- Mehler, saxophonist fers. It’s a testament to
and Hammond Smith ects—an eponymous Michael Blake, and jazz their laser-eyed focus
teamed first on 1974’s 2012 debut, separate icon Dave Liebman. But that spanned 18 months
grooving Gambler’s duo dates with pianist it also stands mighty of writing and recording
Life and then—on Luke Howard and tall on its own. Whether time, commenced
sessions featuring percussionist James hearing this music on during the pandemic
bassist Chuck Rainey, Shipp, the transcen- high-end vinyl, with and Black Lives Matter
drummer Harvey dent Gullfoss—and it’s the deepest of sonic protests.
Mason, keyboardist perfectly apparent on dimensions, or in digital The ever-mutating,
Jerry Peters, a cadre of this enchanting set. form, where a charming multifaceted “Every
background vocalists Working with a top- bonus track extends the Motherfucker…”
and an orchestra of notch quartet featuring program, the appeal of morphs from the
brass, reeds, violins pianist Fred Hersch, Noordhuis’ work is ever tranquil atmospheric
and synth players—for bassist Thomas Morgan so obvious to the ears.
the sensual, shifting and drummer Rudy —DAN BILAWSKY
Gears. Royston, Noordhuis
The Donald Byrd-like brings a sense of won-
simmering, looped der and grace to the OORT SMOG
soul-jazz of “Tell Me fore. Opening with the Every Motherfucker
What to Do” leads into absorbing “Little Song,” Is Your Brother
the disco thunder of the band immediately AKP
the nearly seven-min- engages with the art
ute-long “Los Conquis- of odd-metered dance. Oort Smog—the duo
tadores Chocolates” It’s a spellbinding start of saxophonist Patrick landscapes of its first
and the first of many Shiroishi and drummer few minutes (envision a
numbers to highlight Mark Kimbrell—file droning sci-fi jazz back-
the magic of the Noord- their brand of explor- drop to Blade Runner)
huis-Hersch combina- ative aggro-jazz under into ghostly, soaring sax
tion. “Hudson” follows, “brutal-prog,” a term blows and heavy-hitting,
gliding along in waltz the iconoclastic poly- busy beats that propel
time. “Northern Star” math Weasel Walter the epic track toward
presents an aural auro- originally coined for his another stratosphere.
ra, reflecting the beauty long-running group the At the halfway mark,
of a colorful night sky. Flying Luttenbachers. Shiroishi and Kimbrell
in what appears to be “Entwine” comforts Shiroishi and Kimbrell’s switch gears again,
the Mizell brothers’ with its melodic and sonic assault nods to settling into a groove
(both songs’ compos- harmonic embrace. the Luttenbachers’ laden with shifting time
ers) vision of a night’s Taken together, breakneck rigor but it signatures that has
seduction. Cosmopoli- those four selections also expands into the the duo firing on all
tan and quirky, the mix showcase Noordhuis’ kinds of blissed-out cylinders but with ra-
of flutes, vibraphone, mesmeric horn work, vistas and ritualistic zor-sharp accuracy, and
and wah-wah heavy tuneful writing, and probes navigated by they don’t look back.
guitar, together with first-rate bandmates. Battle Trance and Little The telepathic bond
Hammond’s dirty chord The flipside manages Women. they share throughout
changes and un-ornate to maintain that focus While Oort Smog is top-notch.
organ solo, make this channels those afore- Impeccably recorded
epic spin like a top. mentioned bands, the inside the cavernous
The same can be said duo clearly inhabits its confines of L.A. venue
of the ebullient Smith/ own sound-world on its Human Resources,
Mizell co-write “Fanta- powerful second effort, Every Motherfucker Is
sy,” the ethereal down- Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother expresses
tempo romancer “Lost Your Brother. This single a hopefulness and
on 23rd Street,” and the 29-minute composition urgency made for these
cheerfully funky “Can’t is a stunning achieve- times.
We Smile?”—each ment. Shiroishi and —BRAD COHAN
of which portrays jazz while expanding on it.
as a joyful communal The title track, which
exercise, a party. includes a standout solo
With that vibe, it is no from Hersch, is at once
surprise that Smith and driven and relaxed. Detroit’s Jazz Royalty, (widow of jazz Soul Tracks album of the month
Gears are a favorite of “Ventura” flows with legend Marcus Belgrave) vocalist
the crate-digging set positive energy and
and hip-hop samplers opens space for Mor- Joan Belgrave releases ‘Oooo Boy’
everyone. gan. “Braidwood,” set
—A.D. AMOROSI in motion by Royston’s
searching statements “Lush voice...a veteran powerhouse...
and low-gear groove, Oooo Boy is a sexy blues come-on”
NADJE
NOORDHUIS
makes for a hip and – Broadway World Oooo Boy
joyous journey. “Nebu-
Full Circle la,” offering a beautiful
Newvelle brume of stardust, Produced by Sanchez Harley (Aretha Franklin, Yolanda Adams)
swirls as it seduces. Jazz Development Workshop Inc.
When Nadje Noordhuis As the fourth and final contact@joanbelgrave.com
puts a trumpet or flugel- release in Newvelle
ARTIST’S CHOICE
Ăä#äƈĢĆőĆĩĢĩùūĆĢú
It’s a key characteristic of jazz, and here are six prime examples
BY TED KOOSHIAN
Frank Sinatra with the Count

Basie Orchestra
“Fly Me to the Moon”
Sinatra at the Sands (Reprise, 1966)
I don’t think an article about “swingingest tracks”

would be complete without a mention of the Basie
band, kicked along by the outstanding drummer
Sonny Payne. I’m a big fan of Sinatra’s voice and
his swing feel, and this live disc with Basie may
be my favorite Sinatra album. Basie’s sparse piano
playing is completely opposed to Oscar’s florid
style, but both undeniably swing hard.
George Benson
“Beyond the Sea”
20/20 (Warner Bros, 1985)
This cut is the only jazz track on an album of pri-

marily ‘80s pop music, but it showed that Benson
still had that swing feel. His vocal combines that
feeling with some pop sensibilities, but the band
on this track definitely evokes Basie. And no
wonder, with a killing horn arrangement by Frank
Foster, plus Freddie Green’s signature guitar com-
E
ping. The song features a swinging shout chorus,
ver since I was in the seventh grade, car’s and Joe’s fills and solos are perfect. Oscar’s and then a swinging guitar solo by George, with
performance—his time feel, and his deep-rooted him scatting along in his trademark style.
I’ve had a passion for jazz. I have blues influence —is always amazing.
always listened to and enjoyed a wide Oscar Peterson and Stan Getz
variety of musical genres—classical, pop, Eddie Harris “I Want to Be Happy”
soul, rock, etc.—but the incident that had “The Shadow of Your Smile” Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio (Verve, 1957)
a huge impact on my life, and turned me The In Sound (Atlantic, 1965)
into a future “jazz musician,” was the I added another Oscar Peterson track! I couldn’t
day my junior high school band director Ron Carter and Billy Higgins are locked in togeth- help it. This one is remarkable because there’s no
er like they’re one entity. When the band is play- drummer, and yet the band is as tight and swing-
played me an Oscar Peterson record. Not
ing the heads, in and out, there are instrumental ing as can be, because of everyone’s impeccable
only was I blown away by Oscar’s obvious- breaks at the ends of phrases; the swing feel sense of time and fantastic feel. Once again, Ray
ly incredible technique, but his sense of carries through these silent breaks, as the listener Brown is on bass, this time with the exceptional
“swing” really spoke to me; every note anticipates what’s coming next. There’s very Herb Ellis on guitar. The way they, and of course
little that’s flashy or virtuosic here; it’s tasteful, Oscar and Stan, hold the time together at this
is placed in exactly the right moment in tempo is terrific. Their internal metronomes are
melodic, and swinging. Cedar Walton and Eddie
time. Swing is such a crucial part of jazz— take one chorus each, and then play the head really tuned and in sync. JT
it gives a sense of propelling the music out—the tune fades out over a coda turnaround
forward, and it’s hard to put into words vamp, almost like they couldn’t end it because
they were having too much fun. Born in San Jose, California, pianist/keyboard-
how good music feels when it’s truly ist Ted Kooshian grew up in the Bay Area and
swinging. Here are six examples of swing
JäƅDÁġĆěőĩĢŅĆĩ started playing piano in the second grade. He
moved to New York City in 1987 and since
that genuinely move me.
“I Love Being Here with You” then has worked with Aretha Franklin, Chuck
Oscar Peterson and Sarah The Best Things Happen (Azica, 2004) Berry, Edgar Winter, Marvin Hamlisch, Sarah
Vaughan Brightman, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and Il
Divo. On Broadway he’s performed in such hit
“I’ve Got the World on a String” These guys are in the pocket! Another case of
shows as Mamma Mia, The Lion King, Aida,
every single note in the right place. Jeff is a master
How Long Has This Been Going On? (Pablo, 1978) of this driving shuffle/swing feel, and pianist Tamir Come Fly Away, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and
Hendelman swings hard, in that Gene Harris / Spamalot. He has performed at the Detroit
I could have picked any of hundreds of Oscar Oscar Peterson manner. There’s a great sequence Jazz Festival, the Syracuse Jazz Festival, the
tracks to demonstrate music that is really where Tamir plays a “shout chorus” and trades Sun Valley Jazz Festival, and the Clifford Brown
swinging in the best possible way, but I chose fours with Jeff, and bassist Chris Luty takes the Jazz Festival, as well as festivals in Germany,
BOB QUARANTA
this one because of the added benefit of the bridge. I love how Jeff accents the breaks during Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. In addition to
always-grooving Sarah Vaughan. Having Joe Pass, the shout sections with his bass drum. This per- leading his own groups and projects, Kooshian
Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson playing doesn’t formance and arrangement of the old Peggy Lee has been a member of the Ed Palermo Big
hurt the feel either. Everybody’s swinging, aOs- song is infectious. Band since 1994.
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YEAR IN REVIEW: THE TOP 50 RELEASES OF 2022

ELVIN JONES DONALD BYRD ROBERT GLASPER

CHARLES LLOYD JOHN COLTRANE BLUE NOTE CLASSIC

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