Jazz Recommends Jazz June 2022

Review: The vast and ongoing Blue Note reissue series continues apace her with organist Ronnie Foster's Two Headed Freep album. Foster was a master collaborator who worked with everyone from George Benson to the Jacksons to Stevie Wonder (an in fact played the keys on Songs In The Key Of Life.) But it was his work on Grant Green's funky live LP Alive! in 1970 that caught the attention of the Blue Note boss who tapped him up for this label debut two years later. It is a vibrant seton tunes with five originals as well as covers of the likes of Al Green. Kevin Gray has mastered it from the original tapes and it has been pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Review: Strata Records is one of the most important notches in Detroit's jazz heritage. From Lyman Woodard Organization's Saturday Night Special to Malauwi's self-titled LP, their short catalogue was nonetheless vital. BBE have revisited the label with reissues in the past, and now they've invited nu jazz scene leaders Jazzanova to re-imagine some of the cuts from the Strata archives in their own fusion style. From Woodard classics like 'Joy Road', 'Creative Musicians' and 'Saturday Night Special' to Malauwi's 'Root in 7/4 Plus', these are seminal works approached with care and flair by a band who have undoubtedly proved themselves worthy over the years.

Review: Coming quickly of the release of the single in March, newcomer jazz-funk band Surprise Chef's 'Velodrome' get a limited 7" acetate release by their label Big Crown. Backsided on the B with the track 'Springs Theme', this is a laid back, easygoing instrumental piece, with a heavy drum break and an earworm synth line guaranteed to have you humming it long after the song is over.

Review: Brother Jack McDuff's Moon Rappin is one of those records which sets off a thousand sample-spots. The prolific jazz man made an incredibly catchy kind of jazz funk on this record, with the title track making for something of a peak of the genre in its cool and deadly groove. It's got soul for days and plenty of compositional chops to keep you locked in for the duration. Equally, if you're looking for hot breaks, they're smattered all over this record thanks to Joe Dukes holding it down on the skins and McDuff working his magic on the organ. A timeless classic, repressed by the good folk at Blue Note with their high quality standards present and correct.

Review: Released in 1964, groundbreaking hard bop classic Breaking Point! marked a departure for trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard. Having established himself with The Jazz Messengers, this album showed him breaking out as a player with some daring and expressive playing that went full tilt into modal sequences and rapid fire notes that shook up the state of play and showed new possibilities for jazz as the 60s progressed. In its position between wild experimentation and tradition, it retains musical form which makes the edgier angles go down very smoothly indeed. You can see why this would be a candidate for Decca's Tone Poet series - Hubbard's expression has rarely been matched, in composition or execution.

Review: Originally recorded in 1962 and released in 1963, Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins' collaborative masterpiece remains one of the greats of all time. As well as Ellington on piano and Hawkins on saxophone, you get the sheer joy of Ray Nance on violin, Aaron Bell on bass and Sam Woodyard on drums. That's not the whole line-up either, but fundamentally this is about Ellington's compositions, which get played out with a silken touch. Pieces like 'The Ricitic' feel as light as a feather, proving how subtlety and delicacy are just as much a testament to skill as any performance fireworks.

Review: There are seemingly no limits to the music Emotional Rescue will put out. This time they look back to the post punk scene of Bristol in the early 80s. Mouth was a short-lived outfit that put out just a couple of releases, but each one blazed a trail though leftfield percussive sounds, wave, weird jazz and electronics. Andy Guy and Rob Merrill were the main members with the likes of Nellie Hooper also in the band's orbit. This record is packed with tribal drumming and floating horns, broken dubs and avant-jazz but all with a proudly DIY attitude. It's packed with heady moments and wild steppers that havent aged a bit and still sound future.

Review: Enja Records was founded in Munich in the early 70s by jazz devotees Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber. Given a co-sign by the always on-point BBE and IF Music founder Jean-Claude, the label is now enjoying a retrospective compilation which seeks to celebrate the best of their golden years. Featuring performances by John Stubblefield, Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Don Cherry, Cecil McBee and Pharoah Sanders collaborator Marvin Hannibal Peterson to name but a few, this collection provides a great jumping-off point for Enja's rich and diverse back catalogue. It may only be an introduction to a vast pool of music, but it's curated with authority by a dedicated head, so you know you're getting a shortcut to the best the label has to offer.

Review: 55 years have passed since Bobby Cole lay this one down in 1965 but that has done nothing to diminish its charms. This reissue from Omnivore has been fully sanctioned by the Estate of Bobby Cole and rightly so because it has had the full treatment - produced for release by Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski and remastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves it captures Cole at his best. He was said to be Frank Sinatra's favourite saloon singer and the range he shows here goes some way to proving why. For some reason, the album was a critical but not commercial success.

Review: The Sound Of Music had a long-lasting impact, and one of its cornerstones was 'My Favourite Things', later covered by trumpeter-visionary John Coltrane. Coltrane's version - the lead track from the album of the same name - helped cement the song's cultural standing, topping the charts in several countries. Three other tracks appear on the album in mono; Cole Porter's 'Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye', and two standards from the Gershwin twins on the B side. This new reissue by Rhino, however, has both stereo and mono, along with new liner notes: we're blown away by this light-hearted trumpet masterpiece.

Review: Jazz has always been as much about great collaborations as anything else and that is very much the case with the modern scene. Proving that is Flock, a new coming together of five talented musicians Bex Burch from Vula Viel, Maisha's Al MacSween, Sarathy Korwar, Dan "Danalogue" Leavers and Collocutor's Tamar Osborn. They got together for the first time in March 2020 for a Boiler Room show and some memorable streams during lockdown. Strut Records were listening in and managed to get them in the studio together to try something fresh. The resulting improvised sounds focus on "breathing and listening to each other", explains Bex Burch. It makes for a wild, innovative ride.

Review: Acclaimed French DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist with FKJ has long been a favourite amongst lovers of jazz, soul and broken beat. His first album French Kiwi Juice from back in 2017 took us deeper than ever into his unique world and along the way he paid homages to his inspirations with a real sense of musical maturity. It is a warm, sensuous place to be even now with elements of contemporary jazz, synth-pop, nu-disco, funk and more all taken in and churned out. This limited edition reissue is well worth picking up.

Review: This great album was first put out by EMI Sweden, and if you can find one of those early original copies it is worth well over $500. Thankfully, those of us more bothered about the music than the sautes of the physical product can cop this reissue of Doris's debut LP for a fair price. It has hints of Joni Mitchell as well as Led Zeppelin and Doris herself was back dup by her hubby on bass, who provide plenty of killer funky b-lines under the experimental melodies up top. Add in Janne Carlsson on drums and great work by Bernot Egerladh on organ and you have an essential record.

Review: Les Baxter was undoubtedly one of the leading lights in the exotica movement. Along with Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman he gave Western audiences an impression of distant lands through quaint orchestration that in the 21st Century speaks more to 1960s middle America than any other culture. His landmark The Soul Of The Drums is an immaculate case in point, full of swooning strings, pattering bongos and sensuous horns which teeter on the edge of retail soundtracks as much as big band jazz. For a trip into a bizarre but velvety-smooth time capsule, you can't go far wrong with this record.

Review: Jazz saxophonist Tony Lavorgna, sometimes known as Captain Bad, recorded Chameleon with the St Thomas Jazz Quartet in 1982. The title track is a cover of Herbie Hancock's classic from Head Hunters, given a fresh lick on this superlative album of incredible renditions of long time favourites. Ray Charles' 'Georgia On My Mind', War's 'The World Is A Ghetto' and Dave Brubeck's 'Take The 'A' Train' all get a look in, given a soulful treatment which goes down very smooth indeed. On the strength of these, it's a shame the group never recorded more music together, covers or otherwise.

Review: Yet another first time reissue of a classic, Mongo Santamaria's 'Sofrito'. Don't be confused by the pico de gallo on the front cover; this isn't a salsa album, but rather a career-defining jazz, Afro-Cuban music and funk selection of delights. First released in 1976, it was the master conguero's (conga player's) most defining album, and now gets a proper remaster by Kevin Gray.

Review: Described as "Sci-fi Jazz", this slice of New York's jazz scene from 1974 is getting a well sought-after repressing. In the homes of thousands, the 9-piece group symphonically combine a spiritual blend of percussion, sax, and drums to compliment Smith's refined vocal. The real magic is in-between the sang passages however, with the organic progression of acoustics building up to create a relaxing jazz-funk and jazz fusion sound that is completely distinct. 'Cosmic Funk' and 'Naima' are real highlights, especially vocally with Smith's 'Cosmic Funk' powerful scream and belted vocals counteracting the gently flowing sounds emitting all around the listener (this record is a joy to hear in stereo sound by the way). Snap this vinyl up before it goes away again, they may not land back on earth for a long time.

Review: Albert Ayler was a trailblazing avant-garde saxophonist lost far too soon, and not long before his death he performed an iconic pair of performances at Fondation Maeght in Saint Paul de Vence outside Nice. While excerpts from the performances have been previously released, this is the first time they appear in their entirety, alongside each other as a testament to a truly powerful force in jazz. This four-CD edition comes with an extensive 100-page booklet loaded with essays and quotes from authorities and contemporary music luminaries of all sorts, making it a standout document for all serious jazz lovers to cherish.