All three of these releases are by artists that have been, or are, on the forefront of jazz. What do their most recent products reveal?
1) The conglomerate The Cookers is comprised of some of the best of the “old timers”: Billy Harper/ts, Eddie Henderson/’tp, David Weiss/tp, Craig Handy/as, George Cables/p, Cecil McBee/b and Billy Hart/dr. What is so surprising about this disc is how disappointing it is. The music is essentially various shades of dark grey, with cacophony substituting for excitement. The material such as “Believe, For It’s True” is just too disjointed, and the complexities in material like Wayne Shorter’s “Free For All” get lost in the cerebral delivery. It will leave you as flat as a left open bottle of Dr. Pepper.
2) Curtis Fuller’s name will forever be associated with the classic Blue Note releases of the 50s and 60s, most notably John Coltrane’s classic Blue Train. While he’s lost a certain amount of chops due to age and illness (he only takes a few short solos here and there), his writing skills have never been better. His charts on “Down Home,” “Ladies Night” and “Mr. L” are catchy, memorable and exciting, and the remaining team of Keith Oxman/ts, Al Hood/tp-fh, Chip Stephens/p, Ken Walker/b and Todd Reid/dr sound like they graduated from the University of Art Blakey. Tight ensemble work, excellent solos throughout, particularly by the popping Hood and the husky Oxman. This disc makes hard bop sound easy, and believe me, it ain’t!
3) Branford Marsalis’ regular quartet of Joey Calderazzo/p, Eric Revis/b and Justin Faulkner get together for a collection of originals and a couple covers. The good news is that most of the time Branford is on soprano, on which he sounds angelic as on “Treat it Gentle” and “The Mighty Sword.” The frustrating part here is that except for Monk’s “Teo” and the standard “My Ideal,” the writing is completely forgettable. They used to ask “where’s the melody” during the solo; I felt like asking it during the melody!
Motema Records
Capri Records
Marsalis Music