It was fitting that local big band leader Elliot Deutsch chose to have his CD Release Party on Election Night, as the album title Make Big Band’s Great Again is a play on President Trump’s ubiquitous motto. Charming and enthused…
Month: November 2018
Andres Vial: Plays Thelonious Monk Sphereology Volume One
Pianist Andres Vial teams with guitar great Peter Bernstein while mixing and matching Dezron Douglas-Martin Heslop/b with Andre White-Rodney Green/dr through some clever reads of the Theolonious Monk Songbook. Green and Douglas provide a “Poinciana” pulse for Vial on the…
****ALBUM OF THE YEAR?****Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau: Long Ago and Far Away
This is about the 3rd time Impulse! has released a posthumous album with Charlie Haden, this time with pianist Brad Mehldau from a 2007 concert in Mannheim Germany. Judging by the high quality of all of these albums, it causes…
ZIMMERMAN’S APOTHEOSIS?…Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14-More Blood, More Tracks
One of the truest signs of a great artist is the ability to continually re-evaluate and re-invent himself creatively. Bob Dylan’s 1974 album Blood on the Tracks, reissued here in a sumptuous 6 disc set (with a gorgeous book), is…
JAZZ’S GAPPED-TOOTH COUSIN…The Greatest Country Hits of 1962
Jazz fans sometimes denigrate country music, but just remember that Bob Wills swung harder than anyone in the 40s, Sonny Rollins’ best album covers C&W classics and Bill Frisell has made a career sounding like a sideman at the Grand…
ONE FOR MY BABY… Willie Nelson: My Way
Probably the most underrated vocalist of our time, Willie Nelson at 85 years old may be sounding a bit more frail than during his halcyon years, but he still sounds convincing as he delves into the Frank Sinatra songbook and…
Joel Harrison Angel Band: Free Country Volume 3
Joel Harrison gets folksy as he plays guitar, dobro, six string banjo, national steel guitar and even sings a bit on this mix of jazz and Cumberland gap with a core team of David Binney/as, Jon Cowherd/key-p, Uri Caine/p-key, Chris…
MADAM, I’M ADAM…Darrell Katz and the JCA Orchestra: Rats Live On No Evil Star
Composer and arranger Darrell Katz leads the JCA Orchestra through some creative and independent thinking originals. The palindromic title pieces mixes Vessela Stoyanova’s breezy vibes with exotic strings, while a three piece “How to Clean a Sewer” includes indie sounding…
DK Anderson: Quantum Truth
Tenor saxist and Rhodes keyboardist DK Anderson delivers a soulful stew of interpretations ranging form jazz to cool with a dash of Baby Boomer rock. He encircles himself with Maria Castellon/b, Dave DiStefano/g-dr, Diane Anderson/voc, Kai Ballard/dr and Enzo Belli/g,…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****THE TREASURY OF DAVID…Yelena Eckemoff: Better Than Gold and Silver
Pianist and composer Yelena Eckemoff has built up an impressive and wide ranging catalogue, and this is not the first time one of her albums has gotten my ROTW award. This two disc set is particularly ambitious, as it has…