Friday, July 18, 2014

New Releases: The Fat Babies - 18th & Racine; Jared Gold - Intuition; Kalaparush and the Light - Morning Song

THE FAT BABIES - 18TH & RACINE

One of the coolest combos working in Chicago these days – a trad jazz group with a really wonderful sound – one of the few modern groups who can really illustrate the improvisational excitement of jazz back in the Windy City scene of the 20s and 30s! These guys have a freshness that you'd never find with other trad combos – maybe an energy that's generated by their youth, or the fact that in the 21st Century we're now so removed from the cliches of the trad revival, folks can start over again and really get things right. Whatever the case, their sound is great – an electrifying revival of modes we never thought we'd like this much from contemporary players. The lineup includes string bass, cornet, clarinet, alto sax, trombone, piano, drums, and banjo – and titles include "The Stampede", "18th & Racine", "I Can't Dance", "Stardust", "Oh Baby", "The Chant", and "Blueberry Rhyme". ~ Dusty Groove

JARED GOLD – INTUITION

Jared Gold's one of the few up-and-comers who really knows his way around a Hammond – not in a stock funk mode, but in the far-reaching, freewheeling style of great jazz organists like Larry Young or Lonnie Smith! This set's just the kind of cooker we've come to love from Gold – a trio date that has the keyboardist moving madly up and down his instrument – pulling notes out with effortless ease, and bringing them together in ways that few other players might dare! The group's got guitar from David Stryker and drums from McClenty Hunter – and like most of the best of the classic Hammond players, Jared lets his own feet handle all the work on bass. Titles include "Right Nowish", "As It Were", "Bedo's Blues", "Hoopin On Sundays", "The Crusher", and "Pro Zeca". ~ Dusty Groove


KALAPARUSH AND THE LIGHT - MORNING SONG

A beautiful later Delmark album from Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre – one that has all the vivid creative energy of his classic sessions for the label from the 60s! The setting continues McIntyre's work with The Light – a duo of tuba and drums, which makes for some mighty unusual sounds – an odd variant on the bass and drums you might normally hear in an avant trio like this – with lots of complex interplay at the core, and these soaring, searing solos from Kalaparush on tenor sax! His tone is wonderful – as deeply heartfelt all these many years later as it was right back at the start – a rare sound we'd rank right up there with Pharoah Sanders' voice on tenor. Titles include "Noon", "Let Us All Relax", "Here Comes The Light", "Mobo", "Against All Odds", "Evening", and "I Don't Have An Answer Unless It's God". ~ Dusty Groove


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