WALLACE RONEY – A PLACE IN TIME
With the Grammy-winning composer/pianist Patrice Rushen on hand with guest reedman Gary Bartz and Wallace Roney's sidemen of choice, Ben Solomon, tenor sax, Buster Williams, bass and Lenny White, drums, the musicians on 'A Place in Time' deliver a blisteringly accomplished and creative session. Wallace Roney's music is a tough, taut and intransigent continuation of the arcane forms and structured freedoms of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet. Listeners often associate Roney with Davis, thanks to Roney's work with the jazz legend early in Roney's career. But at this point, Davis' impact on Roney can be considered mostly historic, with Roney's playing larger in scope, firmer in tone and sharper in attack than Davis'. Today, Wallace's set lists feature easy-on-the-ear themes that mask harmonic complexities, while solos are fuelled by strong moods and sustained rhythmic drive informed by the spectre of Davis but far from imitating him. Whether he performs up-tempo original compositions or mainstream ballads, Roney is always compelling in his idiosyncratic ways. His tendency to produce smeared tones, bent pitches and jabbing rhythmic figures in the stratospheric range of the instrument distinguishes his playing, as does the volatile spirit and ever-changing direction of his phrases.
NIGHTHAWKS - 707
The seventh studio album from electro-jazz group Nighthawks.
For music heads Dal Martino and Reiner Winterschladen, the Boeing 707 is a
pertinent childhood memory. When the first Boeing 707 took off into the skies
in 1958, the boys tracked the jet engine's vapour trail. Just six years later,
the plane transported the Beatles to America. A mere 1 ½ decades after this,
the first rock stars sauntered down the gangway of a 707. An echo of the spirit
of the time was definitely present in the studio. Time and again, libertine
Reiner Winterschladen, an avid proponent of improvised music, had to restrict
his trumpet playing to comply with Dal Martino's focus on reduction. These
conflicting poles gave birth to an abundance of sound sketches which, craning
over the studio desk, Dal Martino considerably condensed during countless night
sessions. The resulting album consists of seven songs as well as the 707 Suite
in four movements - a journey lasting just under an hour.
KENNY BURRELL – UNLIMITED 1
On 'Unlimited 1' Kenny Burrell is captured live at the
West-Coast jazz mecca, Catalina's, with a well-oiled big band, The Los Angeles
Jazz Orchestra Unlimited, which is made up of some of the West Coast's greatest
jazz men and studio players. Burrell leads the group, solos and sings through a
set list of original tunes, standards and, of course, what would a Kenny
Burrell record be without some some Duke Ellington? Kenny Burrell has appeared
on so many essential jazz recordings that jazz history and his biography seem
irretrievably intertwined. He has recorded 97 albums under his own name and
several hundred with other artists including Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock,
Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Tony Bennett,
Billy Holiday, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Smith, Art Blakey, Nat King Cole, Ray
Charles, and Louis Armstrong.
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