Tim Lapthorn - Seventh Sense Year: 2006
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Cool Jazz, Piano Jazz
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Pianist Tim Lapthorn leads a trio with bassist Arnie Somogyi and drummer Stephen Keogh in a set that had me listening attentively through most of its length. The title cut, sequenced second on the album, starts very plain, but manages to build just enough, bit by bit, to keep stringing you along until you're fully on board, fully immersed, and fully into it. As it near the end, it lets you down much the way it brought you in, in stages, setting you back where you came from gently and ready for the next phase. "Come Rain or Come Shine" interjects occasional Monk-ish angularities (although less than in the opeinging "Bright Mississippi", briefly in the midst of otherwise flowing and melodious lines. Lapthorn is clearly influenced by Bill Evans, which really shows up in "Laurie," but still retaining his own unique twist. "The Bark and the Bite" has a very contemporary feel to it and flat out rocks. Bassist Somogyi sits a little stronger in the mix than in most recorded trio music, which is also a good thing as his lines really add to the mood and momentum of all the pieces here. Lapthorn proves himself a fine composer, including three quality originals in the nine cut set. In the end, most of this album felt to me very well immersed in a great trio lineage of the past, yet was still bright and fresh. This was one of the moments in my jazz journey where I think maybe I'm too easily impressed; I don't hear much about Lapthorn from the pros, but I thoroughly dug this album.
Betty Carter - The Modern Sound of Betty Carter
Year: 1960
Style or Subgenre: Vocal Jazz
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This was to me a quite impressive vocal jazz album that seems to be more under the radar than it should. Carter's voice is at once velvety, jazzy, bluesy, and altogether an instrument unto itself. Good songs, uniquely delivered, and lots of slightly swaying joy to be had here.
Yannick Délez - Rouges Year: 2002
Style or Subgenre: Impressionist Jazz, Third Stream, Piano Jazz
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Build a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles. Label one jazz, another classical, and the other impressionism. Yannick Délez sits comfortably in the pace where all three circles overlap. More importantly, he brings fresh inventiveness and creativity to that space. He employs a variety of both jazz and classical techniques to create an interesting hybrid. Often, he runs harmonically exploratory virtuosic right hand runs over almost droning left hand ostinatos. On paper, nothing particularly new, but in practice unique and intriguing. Délez also hammers out block chords in an almost ham fisted way, but in doing so, somehow manages to create a flow that belies its seemingly chunky origins. I really enjoyed this album and will definitely be spending more time with it.
Chuck Wayne - The Jazz Guitarist Year: 1956
Style or Subgenre: Bop, Guitar Jazz
Chuck Wayne - Tapestry Year: 1963
Style or Subgenre: Bop, Cool Jazz, Guitar Jazz
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Chuck Wayne sounds a lot like a member of the Jimmy Raney school, but rather without Raney's uniqueness or fire. Nevertheless, this is pleasant guitar trio music. The earlier album in particular seems to lack any distinguishing characteristics. There is definitely some solid evolution in interpretive ability between the 1956 and 1963 efforts and the latter album is a more satisfying listen. Still, even though jazz is my preferred genre, if I want to listen to something called "Tapestry," I'll probably still be reaching first for Carole King. With guitar jazz specifically, with contemporaries or near contemporaries like the aforementioned Raney, and others like Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, etc., even the better latter album isn't likely to spend much time in my system.
Reggie Workman - Summit Conference Year: 1993
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde
Reggie Workman - Cerebral Caverns Year: 1993
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde
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I first took a liking to Reggie Workman as a perennial sideman, most notably with Art Blakey and Wayne Shorter. Eventually, I decided to check out his work as leader. These mid 1990s efforts are a long way from his hard bop work of the early sixties. That's not to say I was at all disappointed though. While this music is light years from traditional hard bop, it is avant garde, but with tremendous soul. On Summit Conferene's opening "Encounter," Workman largely plays the straight man to everyone else's freer explorations. Rather than avant garde, I'll call this avant groove! Workman does get further out on subsequent cuts, but there's always a sense of home, making this a good album for those looking to expand their jazz palette into the avant garde. With the likes of Andrew Hill on piano and Sam Rivers on sax, there's no way this was going to be less than excellent, and the results are no surprise.
The later "Cerebral Caverns" opens with the title cut, which may be as mood evocative a cut as I've ever heard in jazz. It's also quite aptly titled as it not only evokes images of being inside a cavern, the textures, deployment of instrumentation, and application of both melody and free time will engage every corner of your brain. A truly brilliant exposition. The rest of the album is also quite heady; listenable, but definitely not background music. When you're ready to sit down and pour your attention and thought into musical sounds infiltrating your brain, there aren't many other albums that can match this one as a place to indulge.
Meredith d'Ambrosio - Wishing on the Moon
Recording Date: 2004
Release Date: 2006
Style or Subgenre: Vocal Jazz
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This was a bit of a reminder of the dangers of expectations, especially the judging a book by its cover time. As I've really been enjoying exploring female jazz vocals of late, I've come to just assume I'm going to fall in love with it all. Add to that, the artist's rather alluring name, the intriguing album cover, and some very favorable reviews, and I went into this with rather unrealistic expectations. As I listened, what I really heard was a slight vocal affect and occasional pitch control problems that proved to be quite a distraction. I'm sense that this is wonderful music and the lack of appreciation is purely within my own ear, so maybe I'll give this a couple more gos to see if it takes.
Johnny Coles - Little Johnny C Recording Date: 1963
Release Date: 1964
Style or Subgenre: Hard Bop
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So.... a Blue Note hard bop trumpet led album I hadn't heard... this outghta' be fun.
Yeah... for the most part. Pretty much straight ahead, undistinguished hard bop, other than the highlight of a very young but already very talented and expressive Joe Henderson on tenor and some very nice playing by Duke Pearson on piano... but still seeming rather uninspired overall...
... for the first half of the album.
But once on to side 2, things pick up remarkably. It's not that side 1 was bad, just that it really had nothing to recommend it alongside all the other great hard bop of the era. Then on side 2, it really started to grab me. I can only surmise the difference was switching to Pete La Roca on drums. I'm no La Roca expert, so I can't really pin down what he's bringing to the ensemble in any larger context. The drumming is definitely more engaging, but the whole ensemble (Coles himself especially) seems much livelier, much more into it. Was Pete the spark as well as the more suited drummer for this set? Not sure I'll ever know, but those last three cuts are all killer.
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