Locked up due to the lockdown, St. Paul-based Innova Records is up and recording again, bringing in new and fresh music, just like old times. Here is the first cache worth checking out…
Cellist Laura Sewell teams up with team of pianists in Ivan Konev, Ora Itkin and Sonja Thompson for a collection of interpretations of modern composers. Paul Schoenfield’s “Six British Folksongs” includes a nice Irish jig of “The Gypsy Laddie” while “The Parting Kiss” is pastoral and “The Lousy Tailor” evokes the most 
assertive moods. Stephen Paulus has Sewell going recitative on “ Benediction” and prances with the Satie-ish Itkin on “Air” and “Padouana”. Most lyrcal are “Let Now The Harp” and “All Through The Night” from the pen of David Evan Thomas, with Sewell sonorous and gracious throughout. Chamber joys.
Lewis Jordan plays alto and baritone sax, even doing a bit of poetry on this collection of originals with a team of Bruce Ackley/ss-ts, Sandi Poindexter/vi-voc, Ollen Erich Hunt/b, Jimmy Biala/dr and guest vocalists Genny Lim-Tureeda Mikell. There are lots of messages delivered between the thick harmonies and big swaying beats, with Poindexter haunting on “Ask Yourself” and Jordan laying it down on the bohemian backed “Build A Bridge”. His baritone it thick and palpable on “The Mistress of Ceremonies” and the band sways like a congregation to “Call and Response”. A rich and melancholic “I Just Heard The News” and elegiac mix of voice and reeds on “Critical Mass” make for palpable textures. Messages with notes.
I have seen pianist Mike Garman in settings ranging from bebop with clarinetist Eddie Daniels to glitter rock for David Bowie. This album by pianist Danny Holt covers the vast scope of Garson, with each of the 17 songs a color of the prism. There’s an Aladdin Sane-ish “Tribute to David Bowie” along with a Tarkus-sounding “Tribute to Keith Emerson”. Holt flows richly on the “Homage to Chopin & Dodowsky” and is classical-modern on “Selected Nowtudes”. A stately “Gospel” and rushed yet intricate “Homage to Prokofiev” are clever reads and his hands stretch wide for “Homage to Ligeti”. A tip of the hat to an underappreciated Renaissance man.
Anil Camci is a one person keyboard/electric band on this album of various sound effects. A wide mix of sounds ranging from eerie feedback on “Temas” to gurgles and ripples on “Diegese” make for sonic wallpaper. Thre’s even dripping water effects that sound like your drain is being cleaned out on “Birdfish” and you’re changing radio stations on the static filled “Element Yon”. There’s a keyboard journey for “A Now Unknown” and what is akin to an electronic sling shot on the Nintendo’d “Yonder, in Bedlam”. More noodles that a soup kitchen in LA’s Little Tokyo.