Terell Stafford - Fields of Gold Year: 2000
Style or Subgenre: Hard Bop, Post Bop
I so loved my first encounter with trumpeter Terell Stafford, I was happy I blindly picked up a second Stafford disc on the same day. Now having given it a spin, that enthusiasm is in no way diminished. This is wonderful contemporary hard bop/post bop that perks up my ears and makes my brain dance. This quintet is having fun and that translates nicely to the listener. I can have this on for a dedicated listen, have it in the background while preparing a gourmet meal, or in the disc player in the car while road tripping and be equally happy. This is versatile listening right here.
Tomasz Stanko - Suspended Night Year: 2004
Style or Subgenre: Modern Creative, Avant Garde
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Instead of focusing on totally new-to-me artists, I seem to be hitting a lot of second/third examples lately as this is my third Stanko album. In each case these, not listens to not-new-but-not-really-familiar artists have thoroughly validated my joy in those first one or two examples. This is a magnificent set of abstract jazz. After the opening "Song for Sarah, the next ten titles are simply "Suspended Variations" parts I - X. There is no obvious programme to be had, but who cares.... this is stunning music! Thoroughly modern but never shocking, exceptionally well composed and also fantastically well delivered. Stanko's trumped lives inside this music like it was born there and Marcin Wasilewski's piano is just dripping with beauty from engaging melody to solid austerity. The rhythm section, whom Stanko has played with for years, creates a lovely foundation and all four members are in perfect sync. Love this album.
Marlene VerPlanck- Live! In London Year: 1993
Style or Subgenre: Vocal Jazz
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For last night's Saturday Night Vocals, I landed with new-to-me Marlene VerPlanck's live date from 1993. She has a particular strength in standards, but can to any brand of cabaret or torch, and she can also really swing. She has a fine voice although in terms of vocal timbre, it's never going to be my favorite. But her intonation and phrasing are just so brilliant, I found most of the album to be a genuinely thrilling listen.
Denis Nikičić - It's Opening Year: 2023
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Guitar Jazz
I grabbed this one based on a recommendation, selected for Saturday Night Vocals because the link given was a beautiful jazz vocal cut. It turns out that that was the only song with vocals on this guitar album. No bother though, it's an excellent contemporary jazz guitar album, a dandy listen from end to end. Nikičić's playing is clean, crisp, and just adventurous enough to entertain my modern ear. Keybord work is also excellent and drumming is stellar. A very nice little ensemble making wonderful jazz.
Akio Sasajima - Akio With Joe Henderson Year: 1988
Style or Subgenre: Hard Bop, Post Bop
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Akio Sasajima - Time Remembered Year: 1989
Style or Subgenre: Hard Bop, Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Guitar Jazz
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My random generator kicked out guitarist Akio Sasajima next in my listening queue, but I wasn't really in the mood for more guitar music at the moment. Then I saw his first album was a collaboration with my favorite saxman, Joe Henderson and I was definitely in the mood for a cup of Joe, so problem solved. Akio with Joe Henderson was indeed a fine listen with Henderson retaining his unique personality while adapting it to fit Sasajima's musical vision. Sasajima is a master tactician who plays with great feel, and Henderson's soul infusion created a rather unique disc. Maybe not seminal or essential, but well worth multiple listens.
Listening to that session with Joe got me nice and warmed up for more of Sasajima's guitar, so I grabbed his next album, Time Remembered, which is a guitar album through and throuh. This is something of an understated masterpiece in which Sasajima combines his hard bop roots with a more modern, Metheny-ish melodic and harmonic sensibiliity to create something new and subtly intriguing. Another winner for this listener.
Scatter the Atoms that Remain - Exultation Year: 2019
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Avant Garde, Spiritual Jazz
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Scatter the atoms that remain are:
Franklin Kiermyer - Drums
Jovan Alexandre - Saxophone
Davis Whitfield - piano
Otto Gardner - bass
I found Exultation to be a nicely titled album as there is a strong spiritual bent to this modern, new, and unique album that incorporates many traditional elements in it's contemporary synthesis. This quartet are in sync, each a dynamic performer but all playing with, and off of, each other. While each of the four musicians has his say, and the overall presentation is adequately balanced, it's clear that drummer/composer Franklin Kiermyer is the driving force here. The man is relentless, and I mean this in a good way. Active drumming is a physically challenging activity, but this sounds superhuman. It's not just that there's all that pounding away at the skins; any novice rock drummer can do that. No, my impression here was that what Kiermyer does is both physically and mentally demanding as his rhythms are often very nonstandard while being physically demanding, and one can't help but be wowed by his physical and mental prowess, the latter itself the sort that could wear down the average guy even independent of the physicality ivolved.
Helen Humes - Song I Like to Sing! Recording Date: 1960
Release Date: 1961
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Avant Garde, Spiritual Jazz
New to me Saturday Night Vocals last night was with Helen Humes
Wow... what a delightful vocalist!
Fun, versatile, full of flair, and utterly distinctive. This collection of standards and popular music of the preceding years was pretty much a solid wall of highlights. It's hard to single out favorites as every cut is great at what it is, but I will say that her "Mean to Me" is just dripping with melancholy beauty and the closing "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone is total fire!
Five star album for sure.
Ms. Humes, I'm thrilled you like to sing these songs, because I sure do like to listen to you sing them!
Dejan Terzic - Four for One Year: 1999
Style or Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
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Derjan Terzic is a drummer/composer and this wonderful bit of contemporary jazz is appropriately drum-heavy. The only true front line instrument is George Garzone's sax, and Roberto DiGiola gets a little solo time on piano. But this is a sax quartet with plenty of drums, and that works very well here.
Rather than try to relate any specific musical elements at play here, I'll be a little more esoteric in sharing my impressions. That album cover is interesting to me. First, this is a Naxos release and Naxos aren't exactly known for putting a lot of thought into their covers. They are a bargain brand and that's an easy place to cut cost corners. That said, this is one of the most amazing album covers I've seen, not for its own sake at all. This isn't something I would frame and hang on a wall. It's not something that makes me want to say "Wow, look at this!" What it is is something that makes me want to say "Wow, listen to this!" meaning listen to the cover itself. You see, when I listen to this disc, I hear the colors in that cover art. I hear the shapes in that cover art. Even though it is, at first glance, a simple, unimpressive bit of contemporary block style art depicting the quartet, it is in fact perfectly representative of the musical art contained within. And again, I think that really works well for me as a listener here, a listener who really enjoyed this interesting bit of contemporary jazz.
Bennie Wallace - Moodsville Year: 2002
Style or Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz, Post Bop
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What a bit of lovely throwback jazz this is! And while all this music harkens back to earlier, simpler days, it is in no way pedestrian as Wallace has the ability to create unique but appropriate moods across stles with his rich tenor. Hard to find fault with this very pleasing date.
Chris Getstrin/Ben Monder/Dylan van der Schyff - The Distance Recording Date: 2004
Release Date: 2006
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde
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Not being in the mood for my usual Saturday night vocals last night, I instead turned to some avant garde. Drummer Dylan van der Schyff had been on my to-do list, so I grabbed his collaboration with pianist Chris Gestrin and guitarist Ben Monder. At first, I though I had headed down the wrong path as this seemed not very avant gardish, being very understated, even subdued and not particularly adventurous in that manner. It kind of had the feel of an acousto-ambient Windam Hill meets ECM. But that was fairly short-lived, and the "out there" showed up soon enough. I really like Gestrin's piano, and his interplay with Monder's guitar is wonderful. Monder shows some Bill Frisell influence, but bounces that off of Sonny Sharrock-like outbursts. Overall, this is a mostly sparse aural soundscape with occasionally intense punctuation. I don't think I would have ever predicted so effective a bridge between the ambient vibe and avant garde execution. There is much to hold my interest here.
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