Patricia Barber - A Distortion of Love Year: 1992
Style or Subgenre: Modern Creative, Post Bop, Vocal Jazz
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Saturday night vocals last night was a date with miss Patti B. This is kind of a cheat, because this album is only partially vocal. Where it is, Ms. Barber is at her most distinct self, whether singing a new original or totally reinterpreting an old standard. She is equally distinctive in her arrangements and piano playing. This album really does stand out as its own thing without just being out there for the sake of being out there. My pleasure in listening to Patricia Barber varies from day to day, but the interest factor is always there.
Johnathan Blake - Passage Year: 2023
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz
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This is a super fine piece of contemporary jazz! Start with delightful compositions, deliver them via well associated quintet who know each other well, and add just a little magical spice, and here you go, one of the best listens of 2023, a great year for jazz.
Rusty Bryant - Rusty Bryant Returns Year: 1992
Style or Subgenre: Soul Jazz
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Rusty Bryant - Soul Liberation Year: 1970
Style or Subgenre: Soul Jazz
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Feelin' good today so hit the gym for an extra long after-work workout. These two albums were dynamite accompaniment.
Rusty Bryant Returns is a basic six cuts, three per side, all loaded with lots of comfortably blues scale-based soloing. Were an Eric Clapton fan to ping me for a suggestion on how to get into real jazz, I'd be perfectly comfortable recommending this as a gateway. But here's the thing... the added bonus... Rusty and his crew hits us with such a groove right from the start, and the whole thing is just so damn funky! Really, this is a killer album regardless of genre or label. Rusty's sax is smooth and sexy and while he's the leader here, he gives equal time to his mates. Amping up the funk factor is Grant Green on guitar, delivering a hip as a performance as exists in his formidable catalog. If I'd heard organist Sonny Phillips before, I didn't know so by name, but he sure grabbed my attention here as he also maintains the funk factor. Jazzy, soulful, bluesy, and full of funky goodness, I get all kinds of giddy listening to this album.
I was digging this so hard, I simply flowed forward to Rusty's next album, Soul Liberation. This is another funkified affair, but with a little more variety offsetting a slight reduction in funkiness. With Charles Earland on organ, you know the soul groove is going to be there. While Melvin Sparks plays a fine guitar, I couldn't help but miss Grant Green a little. However, this makes a good paring with the previous album as the additional breadth of musical expression (including a gorgeous ballad) keeps the funk fresh.
Pretty sure Rusty knocked off any residual rust and helped me get a few extra reps in at the gym today!
Steve Lacy - Evidence Year: 1962
Style or Subgenre: Progressive Jazz
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This early outing from soprano Steve Lacy is a Monk-heavy affair. Monk's harmonic adventures are present, but Lacy does his own thing with them, and I think he hits all the right notes along the way. As great as Lacy's lines and his playing, this album wouldn't be what it is without the collaborative input of trumpeter Don Cherry, who plays it more straight than he would with, say, Ornette Coleman, but still adventurously enough to match Lacy's musical vision here. The rhythm section provide a more traditionally swinging foundation which provides very interesting contrast to the forward leaning front line. Upon first listen earlier this week, I fell in love with the opening "The Mystery Song," but didn't manage to sustain that level of wonder through the rest of the album. Upon second listen today, the rest of the songs clicked nicely, and together they made an excellent album sequence. A superb listen that has me looking forward to the third and beyond.
Moutin Reunion Quartet - Something Like Now Year: 2005
Style or Subgenre: Modern Jazz, Post Bop
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Moutin Reunion Quartet - Red Moon Year: 2004
Style or Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz, Post Bop
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I once read that the same part of the brain that processes math, processes music. This seemed a bit surprising to me as math is considered cold and purely factual while music it artsy and emotionally expressive. But then it really made sense to me because I swear I can hear math in music. I mention this here because this group is formed by twin brothers, drummer Louis Moutin, who holds a PhD in Math, and bassist Francois Moutin, who holds a PhD in Physics. Clearly a couple smart cats, but they can also swing. This is highly expressive modern jazz by a couple total brainiacs; cerebral enough to be sure, but also tons o' fun. Oh, and how many upright bass/drum duets do you hear? Not many, if any, because this seems a rather dry or unmusical combo... yet these cats pull it off nicely on "Bird's Medley."
After listening to 2005's Something Like Now, I wanted more, so I went back to 2004's Red Moon, an almost equally creative and interesting date.
Roy Eldridge with the Gene Krupa Orchestra featuring Anita O'Day - Uptown Recording Year: 1941 - 1949
Release Year: 1990
Style or Subgenre: Big Band, Swing, Mainstream Jazz
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Last night's Saturday Night Vocals session was to get caught up with one of my recent acquisitions.
Let's see....
... I love Roy Eldridge
... I love Gene Krupa
... I love Anita O'day
So seeing this disc for $3 made this a no brainer even with no previous knowledge of its specific contents.
Then I played it. Okay, so pretty rough sound quality, but that was to be expected and I'm good okay with that on a good historical recording.
But then in comes the vocal and it's some dude? Hey, I bought this album for Anita, not some crooner! Well, Howard Dulany actually doesn't suck, and it wasn't that much longer before Anita joined in, so maybe we'll be okay. By the second song, the one giving this collection it's title, things were much better than okay, they got real fun, real fast! Even more so than I had originally hoped. This is a monster swinging big band session with lots of classic O'Day vocals and serious blowing from Eldridge. It turns out there's a few equally fun youtube videos of these performances, so the joy just continued. Way to go, team!
Patricia Brennan - More Touch Year: 2022
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde
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If a modern, avant garde but not-too-far-out vibraphone trio sounds intriguing, then you must give this 2022 release, Barber's second as leader, a run. All the sounds coming from Brennan's vibes are pretty easy on the ear, but nothing in this music is standard issue. Much of this recommendation comes also as the result of some energetic and creative drumming by Marcus Gilmore, and some really clever bass from Kim Cass. There is occasionally additional percussion, and Brennan also introduces some space electronics. All this comes together into something that is like nothing else, but still surprisingly accessible. I'm a fan.
Greg Foat - Dark Is the Sun Year: 2011
Style or Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz, Fusion, Jazz-Funk
I gotta' say, I really enjoyed this jazz album that starts off with a "Harpsichord Bugalu!" While the sound of that opening tune isn't exactly indicative of the sound of the album, it is indicative of the refusal to color inside the lines even as the album transitions into more standard jazz-funk territory with some very pop oriented melodies. That it is so catchy and accessible without ever falling into musical clichés makes this a very entertaining listen.
Diedre Murray - Firestorm Year: 1992
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Chamber Jazz
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Cellist and Henry Threadgill alum Diedre Murray teams up with bassist Fred Hopkins for a strictly string duo avant/chamber jazz date that makes for a truly fascinating date. Cello and bass alone is a combination I've not heard before, even in classical music, and it really doesn't sound promising at first. But the two are in sync and they take some very loose tunes and improvise their way through some very interesting songs with more variety than you'd expect from such an instrumental pairing. I think I could easily recommend this to a lot of folks simply looking to hear something they've never heard before.
Ian McDougall - Nights in Vancouver Year: 2004
Style or Subgenre: Bop, Cool
This current century bop/cool live dateis led by Canadian trombonist Ian McDougall is maybe just a little too safe for me to get really excited. Everything is nicely arranged and smoothly played, but rarely generates real excitement. The opener is a relatively lackluster Night in Tunisia, a tune that needs to be more active. The album does have a very nice run through the middle though. Barb's Blues maybe lasts a little too long at almost 12 minutes, but it's a solid jazz-blues number that makes for a fun listen. The middle song is the gloriously lyrical September, where the smooth approach really brings out its spirit. After that is Crazy Rhythm, the one song on the album where McDougall and fellow front liner, sax man Ross Taggart, and pianist Ron Johnston really seem to let their hair down.
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