Music: Current count 21041 [21005] rated (+36), 598 [620] unrated (-22).
Don't know what came over me, or why, but I made a big Jazz Prospecting push this last week -- mostly 2012 releases I had been avoiding (no big surprises there, except maybe Iron Dog, which had some poll support and features someone I've liked before but didn't recognize). Also a few new ones. Doubt I will keep this pace up, as even the vocals queue box is unjammed at the moment.
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Eric Alexander: Touching (2012 [2013], High Note): Tenor saxophonist, big mainstream guy, put out an album called Solid! in 1998 and an even better one called Dead Center in 2004, and only rarely misses the mark. All standards here, counting Coltrane. Tends to go soft and woozy this time, but Harold Mabern connects with soulful piano, and John Webber and Joe Farnsworth do their usual fine job.B+(**)
Bob Arthurs/Steve Lamattina: Jazz for Svetlana (2012, self-released): Trumpet/guitar duets: two Arthurs originals, standards, some Dizzy Gillespie. Both musicians have thin discographies, get by on teaching (Arthurs 1972-2005 at Music Conservatory of Westchester; Lamattina same joint since 1980). Arthurs sings "All of Me" and "I Thought About You" -- reminds me a bit of Jack Sheldon, winging it on charm.B+(**)
Hashem Assadullahi: Pieces (2012 [2013], OA2): Saxophonist -- credited with plural but photographed with tenor -- based in New York; second album, a sextet with Ron Miles on trumpet, both guitar and piano, plus bass and drums. Postbop, a bit on the slick side with no rough edges, goes down easy.B+(*)
Cecily Kate: Standards (2012, self-released): Singer, full name Cecily Kate Horner, from Wellington, NZ; studied at Indiana, moved to New York, has worked with the New York Grand Opera and both off and on Broadway. First album, backed by piano-bass-trumpet. Put some effort into a credible "My Funny Valentine," but her little girl voice undermines "Let's Do It"; you'd think "Stupid Cupid" and "Where the Boys Are" might be more age-appropriate, but then she turns on the opera.B-
Ori Dagan: Less Than Three (2012, Scat Cat): Canadian crooner, second album, some standards ("Sweet Georgia Brown,""Strangers in the Night"), some contenders ("Your Song,""Lucky Star"), a couple of originals ("Googleable": "Google anywhere/even in your underwear"), something in Hebrew. Voice is almost throwaway, and despite his fondness for scat, he can't make it fly.C+
Eric DiVito: Breaking the Ice (2011 [2012], Pioneer Jazz Collection): Guitarist, from Long Island, based in New York. First album, uses acoustic and electric bassists, layering the guitar on for groove pieces and ballads, occasionally roughed up by Jake Saslow's sax.B+(*)
Elina Duni Quartet: Matanë Malit (2012, ECM): Singer, b. 1981 in Albania, left when she was 10 but returns through this mostly trad. songbook. Second album, this one backed by Colin Vallon's piano trio, providing understated but more than competent support, without traditional instruments or oriental sonorities. This puts all the focus on Duni's voice, dark and torchy, sombre or smoldering.B+(***) [advance]
Fado Em Si Bemol: QB (2012, Vidisco): Portuguese group, third album since 2007, the fact that "Fado" is written so much larger and "qb" so illegibly has caused some confusion (e.g., over at AMG). Pedro Matos sings, two guitars (one listed as guitarra portuguesa), bass, and drums.B+(*)
Doug Ferony: You Will Be My Music (2011 [2012], self-released): Sinatra imitator (not that he really has the chops), sometime actor, b. 1958, has nine albums since 1996, this one with the usual big band arrangements. At best ("Fly Me to the Moon,""I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm") the songs are so magnificent I can't nitpick.B
Mimi Fox: Standards, Old & New (2012 [2013], Origin): Guitarist, b. 1956, eight (or so) records since 1987, third solo album including a previous Standards from 2001. Spare but inventive, something that hangs off the familiarity of the songs, which lean toward folk but include Wes Montgomery.B+(*)
José García: Songs for a Lifetime: Live (2012, self-released): Standards crooner, also plays guitar, from Mexico, cut this live at the New York Club, Palm Desert, CA, no date given. AMG credits him with two previous albums. Backed by Carlos Rodgarman's piano trio. Opens with two Cole Porters separated by "The Shadow of Your Smile." Not really a natural, but only overstrains when he tries to slip in something Latin ("Besame Mucho").B
David Greenberger/Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound: They Like Me Around Here (2012 [2013], Pel Pel): Spoken word, the words collected from interviews with old folks in nursing homes -- at some point in all of Greenberger's albums I belatedly realize that his homogenized voice is channeling a much more varied group of people, usually when one of those people has to be female. A year and a few months ago Greenberger released four albums with different musicians. I found they all sort of flowed into each other, but the consensus pick -- Christgau and Tatum, anyway -- was the one with Paul Cebar (and Mark Greenberg). This time there's just one, with Cebar taking charge, his music varied, inventive, sometimes exotic -- tasteful horn charts, lots of percussion, field recordings.A-
Scott Healy Ensemble: Hudson City Suite (2012, Hudson City): Pianist, from Cleveland, based in Los Angeles, has (had?) a regular gig with Conan O'Brien. Looks like he has three 2012 releases, but I don't see anything earlier. This is nominally an 11-piece group although the personnel shifts from cut to cut, rich in horns with Tim Hagans' solo spots standing out, Kim Richmond and Doug Webb in the reeds, and bass trombone on every cut.B+(*)
Scott Healy-Glenn Alexander Quartet: Northern Light (1991 [2012], Hudson City): Old live 2-track tape, runs 38:34. Healy plays synths as well as piano, Alexander guitar (three albums 1987-96), with Kermit Driscoll on bass and Jeff Hirshfield on drums. The fusion impulses are forgettable, but the more conventional acoustic piano is more pleasant.B
Eric Hofbauer: American Grace (2012 [2013], Creative Nation Music): Guitarist, b. 1974 in Rochester, NY; plays in the Blueprint Project and has a half-dozen albums under his own name. This is solo, the third leg of a roots trilogy that started with American Vanity and American Fear. Offhand, seems like a Bill Frisell move, but Hofbauer's Americana is crude, rough, gnarly, nothing to get sentimental about.B+(*)
Iron Dog: Interactive Album Rock (2012, self-released): Sarah Bernstein writes poems/texts, recites them through some kind of electronic processor, same for her violin. Second album as Iron Dog with Stuart Popejoy on bass/synth and Andrew Drury on drums -- first was a 2011 release called Field Recordings Vol. 1 dating from 2005-06 -- plus one album under her own name (Unearthish, worth checking out). This has an industrial tone but is more/less improvised.B+(***)
Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra: Bloom (2011 [2013], 19/8): From Japan, moved to New York in 2005 and rounded up this crackling 18-piece big band, for which she is composer, arranger, conductor -- after guitar-bass-piano (acoustic and electric) the 18th "piece" is vocalist Sara Serpa. Fine textures and intriguing details, some strong reeds. Wonder whether this will attract the attention Maria Schneider enjoys, but I'm evidently unfit to tell.B+(***)
Charles Lloyd/Jason Moran: Hagar's Song (2012 [2013], ECM): Duo, the venerable saxophonist and one of the most accomplished young pianists of the last decade -- some of those feats coming in Lloyd's Quartet, so this isn't a stab at an odd pairing. No bass or drums lets Lloyd take his time, especially delighting in melodies like "Mood Indigo" and "God Only Knows." Some flute, but it fits right in.A-
Sandra Marlowe: True Blue (2011 [2012], LoveDog!): Standards singer, b. in North Dakota, based in San Francisco area 20 years. First album as far as I can tell, backed by Larry Dunlap on piano and John Shifflett on bass, with scattered but rarely notable horns.B-
Chris McNulty: The Song That Sings You Here (2012, Challenge): Standards singer/sometime songwriter (wrote 2 of 10 here), b. 1953 in Australia, based in New York since 1988, has a half dozen albums since 1990. Has a real presence on the slow ones, and a fine band including Paul Bollenback on guitar and Igor Butman on tenor and soprano sax -- underused on the second half after he takes a big solo early on.B+(**)
Sean Nowell: The Kung-Fu Masters (2012 [2013], Posi-Tone): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1973 in Birmingham, AL; studied at Berklee and Manhattan School of Music; fourth album since 2006. Takes a jazz-funk turn here, with trumpet, trombone, both keybs and organ, electric bass, and drums.B+(*)
Bennett Paster: Relentless Pursuit of the Beautiful (2011 [2013], self-released): Pianist, b. 1970 in Washington, DC; grew up in New Mexico, moving to Boston in 1988; studied at Tufts and NEC. Has a handful of albums sine 2001, a couple Latin-themed as Grupo Yanqui. This is more typical postbop, with Alex Pope Norris on trumpet/flugelhorn and either Joel Frahm or Tim Armacost on tenor (or soprano) sax.B+(*)
Jeremy Pelt: Water and Earth (2012 [2013], High Note): Trumpet player, regarded as a rising star a few years ago and certainly qualifies as an established force now, with nearly a dozen albums since 2002. Still, this is a very unadventurous groove album, with loads of Fender Rhodes and Roxy Coss as the complementary saxophonist. Includes a vocal cut -- semi-obligatory for smooth jazz albums looking for a radio slot, here too, probably for the same reason.B
Dan Phillips BKK Trio: Bangkok Edge (2012, self-released): Guitarist, don't have much on him but evidently not his first album. Half trio with bass and drums; half adds tenor saxophonist Jakob Dinesen. Long, tight, metallic lines, warmed up a bit by the sax.B+(**)
Enrico Rava: On the Dance Floor (2011 [2013], ECM): Italian trumpet player, b. 1939, started on the avant side and wound up, well, here, doing a tribute of sorts to Michael Jackson, live at Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome with an 11-piece (counting Rava makes 12) group called Parco della Musica Jazz Lab. All Jackson songs (except for "Thriller" and "Smile"), not that they're all that obvious. Lots of brass plus keyb and guitar, and a beat that's not beyond slipping some flamenco into the disco.B+(**) [advance]
Jussi Reijonen: Un (2011 [2013], self-released): Guitarist, b. in northern Finland, based in Boston, first album. Also plays fretless guitar and oud, dabbling in various world musics -- Arabic, Malian, something like tango.B+(*)
Ellen Robinson: Don't Wait Too Long (2011 [2012], EMR Music): Singer, San Francisco Bay Area (this was live at Freight& Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley); third album; wrote 3 (of 12) songs, covers tend to be later show tunes with "Our Day Will Come" -- the one song she projects most clearly -- her answer to Prop. 8. With Murray Low's piano trio spiced up with Kristen Strom's saxes.B
Barry Romberg's Random Access: Crab People (2012, Romhog, 2CD): Drummer, b. 1959 in Canada; has generally numbered his Random Access releases, which date back at least to 1999, with this one Part 12. Tends toward fusion -- electric guitar, bass, keybs -- but the horns won't settle for smooth and Ravi Naimpally's tabla and frame drum break fresh ground.B+(*)
Seung-Hee: Sketches on the Sky (2012, self-released): Vocalist, b. in South Korea, studied at Berklee, based in New York. Second album, mostly originals, lyrics added to Charlie Haden and Bill Evans, Sting and Stevie Wonder for standards, most of the vocals in Korean. Exceptional support from the rhythm section -- Frank LoCastro, Ike Sturm, and George Schuller -- and especially from tenor saxophonist Adam Kolker.B+(**)
Joey Stuckey: Mixture (2012, Senate): Guitarist, from Macon, GA. Has a couple previous albums. Blind usually spells blues, but he cites Jeff Beck and Wes Montgomery as influences, and Tom Rule's keybs/drum programming leans toward smooth jazz.B
Allen Vizzutti: Ritzville (2011 [2012], Village Place Music): Trumpet player, b. 1952 in Montana, passed through Los Angeles where he did quite a bit of soundtrack work, wrote books on trumpet technique, wound up in Seattle; has a handful of albums since 1982, co-credits with Chick Corea, who returns the favor here, as does Stanley Clarke. First cut flows strong, second backs off, a conflict never resolved, ending with one of those postbop vocals I never see the point of.B
Carrie Wicks: Barely There (2012, OA2): Singer-songwriter, originally from New Jersey, wound up in Seattle; second album; four covers (Townes Van Zandt, Pee Wee King, Johnny Mercer, Oscar Hammerstein II), nine originals co-credited to Ken Nottingham (not in the band). Band includes label regulars Bill Anschell and Jeff Johnson; one cut features accordion, and Hans Teuber consistently adds tasty clarinet and tenor sax. She has a sly voice which grows on you, and the closing standards drive home the intrinsic musicality.B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Antonio Adolfo: Finas Misturas (Adventure Music): April 2
- Aguankó: Elemental (RKO)
- Ehud Asherie with Harry Allen: Lower East Side (Posi-Tone)
- Carlos Barbosa-Lima & the Havana String Quartet: Leo Brouwer: Beatlerianas (Zoho): April 9
- Peter Evans: Zebulon (More Is More)
- Miho Hazama: Journey to Journey (Sunnyside): March 26
- Charles Lloyd/Jason Moran: Hagar's Song (ECM)
- Anders Nilsson/Joe Fonda/Peter Nilsson: Powers (Konnex)
- Dawn Oberg: Rye (Blossom Theory Music): April 16
- Melvin Taylor: Taylor Made (Eleven East)