Friday, June 24, 2016

NEW MUSIC: HOUSTON PERSON / RON CARTER – CHEMISTRY; MARCOS AMORIM – SEA OF TRANQUILITY; JAMAICA JAZZ 1931-1962

HOUSTON PERSON / RON CARTER – CHEMISTRY

A brilliant late-life session from these two jazz giants – and maybe the most striking record we've heard from either player in years! The album features just the bass of Ron Carter and tenor of Houston Person – in a wonderfully stripped-down setting that really gets right to the heart of the matter, and which lets us hear both musicians at a level that's extremely up-close and personal – as they improvise with undimmed magic on a set of standards that really turn into something else entirely in their hands! Carter's a player who we've always known to take best advantage of open space like this – and Person is equally great in the format, and maybe wins us over even more than on any of his other recent dates for the label. Titles include "Bye Bye Blackbird", "Blue Monk", "Blame It On My Youth", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "Fools Rush In", and "Can't We Be Friends". ~ Dusty Groove
  
MARCOS AMORIM – SEA OF TRANQUILITY

Beautifully subtle guitar work from Marcos Amorim – a musician who plays an electric instrument, but can often make it feel as if waves of sound are just cascading out gently into the air – more tone than attack on the strings, with this style that's deft, but very unassuming – and which works especially well with the Fender Rhodes lines used on a good number of tracks on the album! The balance is key to Amorim's talents – as the whole thing would be too smooth or slick in the hands of someone else, but still has that up-close, personal vibe we loved in Marcos' other albums for Adventure. Other instrumentation includes bass and drums – and singer Delia Fischer appears on a few of the album's tracks, although the set is mostly instrumental overall. Titles include "Bolero", "January Ashes", "Dance Of The Five Princesses", "Sea Of Tranquility", "The Further Away The Closer I Get", "Sea Time", and "My African Goddess". ~ Dusty Groove

JAMAICA JAZZ 1931-1962

A huge vision of Jamaican music in the pre-reggae years – a wealth of jazz recordings from the 40s and 50s, including some key sides of Jamaican musicians who emigrated to London! The set features way more than just some early instrumental moments in the years before ska and rocksteady – as the package begins with bigger band sounds, moves into some calypso-influenced jazz, and then steps out in a sweet array of hardbop and sounds inspired by some of the growing changes in Jamaican rhythms. And even the London recordings seem very well-chosen – early in the careers of musicians who'd later break bigger in the UK, but who work here with more ties to the island of their roots. Titles include "Donkey City" and "Swing Lane Girl/Iron Bar" by Lord Fly, "Wheel & Tun Me" by The Jamaican Calypsonians, "Snakehips Swing" by Ken Snakehips Johnson, "Big Top Boogie" by Leslie Jiver Hutchinson, "Cherokee" and "April In Paris" by Joe Harriott, "Bang" and "Eb Pob" by Dizzy Reece, "Manhattan" and "Cumana" by Cecil Lloyd, "Deborah" and "Rhythm" by Wilton Gaynair, "Air Horn Shuffle" and "Swing For Joy" by Count Ossie & The Wareikas, "Tangerine" and "Harry Flicks" by Harold McNair, "The Answer" by Tommy McCook, and "Old Devil Moon" by Totlyn Jackson. 3CD set features 60 titles in all – and notes in French and English! ~ Dusty Groove


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