Dan Siegel | Unity

Pianist and keyboardist Dan Siegel has covered a broad swath of the jazz spectrum over the course of his four-and-a-half decade career, from straightahead swing to sleek contemporary sounds. While that’s a testament to Siegel’s multi-faceted talents and restless curiosity, it’s also the result of the diverse array of collaborators that have joined him along the journey – a staggering roster that includes Bela Fleck, Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton, Ernie Watts, Ottmar Liebert, Lee Ritenour, Brian Bromberg, Eric Marienthal, Bob Sheppard, Boney James, Alex Acuña and others. 

Siegel’s twenty-third release, Unity, is the latest and one of the finest examples of that alchemical process. Due out August 9, 2024, Unity reunites the keyboardist with drummer Oscar Seaton for the first time in 20 years, since the recording of the 2004 album Inside Out. It also marks his first meeting with bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, Seaton’s rhythm section partner in Terence Blanchard’s electrically charged E-Collective band. From the time the trio entered the studio together, Siegel’s vision of the music he’d written for the session irrevocably changed, a display of the titular unity.

'Recording is like magic sometimes,” Siegel says. “The music appears from nothing, which can be really gratifying. The best guarantee you can have is to hire good people. When I got together with Oscar and DJ, the feel and the overall direction changed pretty drastically from how I envisioned it.” 

Siegel points to the breezy, infectious “Free Spirit,” which he initially pictured as a swinging piano trio tune in the classic tradition. Approaching Ginyard and Seaton separately, both assumed they’d play it as a shuffle. “I had no idea that's where it was going to go,” Siegel marvels. It turned out to be this pretty heavy 12/8 groove, but it works. I have to admit that when things change up like that, it's the most fun you can have in the studio.” 

To the core trio, Siegel added a rotating cast of master guitarists, most of them longtime compatriots and friends who each added their own distinctive flavors to the tracks: Rob Bacon (Raphael Saadiq, Amp Fiddler), Allen Hinds (Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole), Michael Miller (Boz Scaggs, Chick Corea), Dean Parks (Steely Dan, Michael Jackson), and Michael Thompson (Babyface, Whitney Houston). Unity also features percussion great Lenny Castro, whose relationship with Siegel dates back to the keyboardist’s self-titled 1982 album, as does that of prolific saxophonist Tom Scott, who heads the album’s horn section. 

Unity, like each of Siegel’s wide-ranging albums, is a reflection of the time and circumstances in which it was created. Its most recent predecessors, the meditative Fractured Monolith and the densely arranged, wistful Faraway Place, were Siegel’s pandemic projects, generated by isolation and endless time. The ability to convene with one’s fellow musicians is captured in the new album’s title, as is a bit of wishful thinking in reaction to our current divisive culture. Chiefly, though, it defines the method of its production, a cohesive whole arising from multiple distinct personalities. 

“This project came together in an incredible fashion from the very beginning,” Siegel says. “It was really painless and a lot of fun. With DJ and Oscar playing together, it's impossible not to have a great rhythmic foundation that’s a joy to play on top of. With that foundation I brought in all these guitarists, guys that I've known throughout the years that I thought would be suitable for different tunes. In the end, the music speaks for itself.” 

A sense of freedom, escape and momentum is threaded through the album, from the lyrical, Crusaders-like opener “Best Foot Forward” through the elegant ballad “Line of Sight” with its lush, Gil Evans-inspired horn arrangement, to the funky “Streetwise,” “Free Spirit” with its surging shuffle groove, on to the lively, humor-laced “Roadside Attraction.” But Unity also contains a range of emotions and moods, including the stirring drama of “Defining Moment,” the bright, organ-laced title track, and the tender “Before I Go.” 

The latter is a rare moment of reflection on a primarily forward-looking collection. It’s an acknowledgment that at 70, Siegel’s long and rewarding career is entering a concluding chapter. It’s a stark fact also reflected in the striking cover art, a painting by Siegel’s longtime friend Alan Rubin, who passed away in 2022. 

“While we were in the middle of recording at Sunset Sound in L.A., I took a moment to look around and think to myself, ‘I wonder how many more opportunities I'm going to get to do this.’ But you never know when the inspiration will come again and the ideas will start to flow. That’s what happened here, and I’m so proud of this album.”

Nduduzo Makhathin | uNomkhubulwane

Since making his international debut for Blue Note in 2020 with Modes of Communication: Letters From the Underworlds, the South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini has earned widespread acclaim for the genuinely spiritual transcendence of his music. For Makhathini, a Zulu healer and educator who has delved deeply into the histories and traditions of his ancestors, improvised music has never been merely about aesthetics or idioms. As the New York Times put it when naming Modes of Communication one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2020: “In a moment when spiritual jazz has become a dangerously buzzy concept, trust a musician who has truly devoted his life to divination practices.”

But with the three-movement suite uNomkhubulwane, his third release for the venerated jazz label, Makhathini travels beyond any existing notion of music-making to offer his most profound vision of creative mysticism yet. Unlike his previous records, Makhathini explains, “which often expressed intention through composition or some form of conceptual paradigm,” the pianist seeks inspiration on a wholly metaphysical plane — using sound as a way to commune with, as he puts it, “supernatural voices.” To say it another way, rather than relying on the celebrated work of his American and African jazz heroes, or even on the probing research in his academic fields of study, Makhathini opts here to tap into the pure essence of being — an otherworldly effort that involved “listening-hearing-sensing and establishing a relationship with an ‘elsewhere’ through some guidedness.” Throughout uNomkhubulwane, Makhathini acts as both a futurist and an ancient, venturing into the unknown by exploring concepts that return him to the dawn of time.

Remarkably, he has crafted an inviting, immersive listen that should once again impress devotees of John and Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, classic South African jazz, Makhathini’s friend and collaborator Shabaka Hutchings and other intrepid musical voyagers. uNomkhubulwane features the pianist’s trio—an intuitive unit whose extensive touring has spanned the globe over the past year—with Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, a bassist of South African descent who was born and raised in the U.S.; and the Cuban-born drummer Francisco Mela, a best-of-generation musician recognized for his work with Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner and other lions, and for his own culture-merging work as a bandleader. The rhythm section adds passionate vocal backing, accenting and lifting up Makhathini’s sacred lead-vocal offerings.

Collectively, their touch is precise in its technique yet ethereal in its purpose — and astoundingly clairvoyant in its cohesion. On “Omnyama,” a gracefully hypnotic repeated figure bolsters the leader’s spoken-word — filled with rhythmically compelling contours and bluffs — and rousing sung incantations. The click sounds that Makhathini deploys here and elsewhere in his suite, especially the qa sound common to the Bantu languages, evoke the aural sensation of water droplets; water, at the core of the African creation story, invokes essence, which in turn invokes God.

“Izinkonjana” is an enchanting ballad that delivers the gospelish elegance of such South African greats as Abdullah Ibrahim. Similarly, “Uxolo” comes off as a vintage American jazz standard, beautifully showcasing the ensemble’s shared temperament and keen sense of interplay. Twilit and nostalgic and featuring an outstanding bass solo, “Uxolo” sounds as if it could have been captured at the Village Vanguard in 1961. “KwaKhangelamankengana” is highlighted by its percolating whirlwind of groove, as well as the leader’s speak-sing vocal and hammered chording, which calls to mind McCoy Tyner, one of Makhathini’s guiding lights in finding the continuity between American jazz and the Mother Continent.

So many fascinating evocations, and yet uNomkhubulwane contains a backstory unlike anything in recorded music. To start, Makhathini’s 11-track suite takes its title from the Zulu name of “God’s only daughter and a manifestation of God’s very creation purpose,” the pianist explains. “She is also believed to be a mythical rain goddess, a regulator of nature, light and fertility.” A shapeshifting force, uNomkhubulwane can manifest in the form of an animal, or a hurricane or a rainbow — the lattermost of which, Makhathini says, symbolizes her “kindness and regulation of balance.”

uNomkhubulwane is an essential presence in Zulu life: She lives with the people as a protector and a source of equilibrium that makes “abundance” — a word Makhathini uses often, to signify prosperity — a possibility. Makhathini strives to dissociate the actual abundance of Africa’s past from the shameful reputation forced onto the continent through colonialism. The soul and heritage of Africa is impossibly rich, complex and cultivated, he argues. But colonialism and its continuing repercussions robbed these African communities of their meaning and rightful pride. The African peoples’ sophistication and self-sufficiency went unacknowledged or, more commonly, destroyed, as these attributes were viewed as threats.

This devastation all but defines the lack of infrastructure and the surplus of exploitation — of resources, of culture — that Africa experiences today. Apartheid did a horrifically effective job of making sure the townships failed to thrive while refocusing the blame inward, back onto subjugated South Africans. Today, as Makhathini points out, Africa isn’t part of the global conversation around civilization and progress … and yet Africa invented civilization!

Makhathini’s album is a never-ending exploration of these issues — of the myriad reasons why the African people have struggled to experience the abundance of uNomkhubulwane. In seeking these answers, he uses here an “ongoing rehearsal” concept, in contrast to a performance. To put it tritely, the journey of this suite is in fact the destination — and that destination includes nothing less than “cosmic totality.” “This process,” Makhathini says, “deals with rituals of being as a state of surrender, meditation and prayer.”

The project’s three movements are a kind of pathway to embracing the spirit of uNomkhubulwane — three being a number of monumental power and meaning in Africa. “In Yoruba cosmology,” Makhathini says, “number 3 represents balance and harmony [characteristics of uNomkhubulwane]. Much broader African worldviews associate number 3 with endlessness, immortality and ongoing-ness through a triple state of being; before [ancestors], here [the living] and the future [the not-yet-born].” Three is indicated directly in the music of Makhathini’s new suite — in the trio format of the band, in time signatures, in a delightful triplet feel.

The suite emerged out of a “mother song” afforded to Makhathini during the initiation process he underwent to become a healer. There, he was immersed in water in order to encounter uNomkhubulwane, who gifted him this song. “The first movement ‘Libations,’” he says, “deals with collective black memory inside a state of protest against ongoing oppression[s],” adding that “this movement invokes an eternal state of black mourning that has made us lose our ‘voices,’ and even though we still cry, we do not have tears anymore.” The second movement, ‘Water Spirits,’ deals with vital energy and restoration — a proposal of “cleansing and summoning of essence.” The final movement, “Inner Attainment,” focuses on “freedom, hope and grace,” and the striving toward a transcendence that would bring abundance back to our current time and physical plane.

As always, Makhathini’s message is ultimately one of perpetual optimism for his people, and for all people. “Essentially, this offering is an invitation to humanity to cultivate ways of being that yearn for freedom and balance,” he says. “Here I invite you to a new mode of humanism that is oriented towards singing the songs of uNomkhubulwane.”

~ By Evan Haga

Patrice Rushen | Prelusion

Craft Recordings and Jazz Dispensary celebrate the five-decade-long career of singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Patrice Rushen with a reissue of her long-out-of-print debut, Prelusion. While the three-time GRAMMY® nominee became best known as an R&B singer and barrier-breaking musical director, this 1974 album showcases Rushen’s talents as a jazz musician, composer, and improviser and features such esteemed sidemen as Joe Henderson, Oscar Brashear, and George Bohanon. 

Set for release on August 23rd and available for pre-order today, Prelusion marks the latest title in Jazz Dispensary’s album-centric Top Shelf series—which reissues the highest-quality, hand-picked rarities. As with all releases in the series, the LP features all-analog remastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. A tip-on jacket, replicating Prelusion’s original design, completes the package. 

In 1982, Patrice Rushen soared to stratospheric heights with her GRAMMY-nominated album, Straight from the Heart (featuring the enduring hit, “Forget Me Nots”). Yet, while Rushen found international fame as an R&B singer-songwriter, her career was actually rooted in jazz tradition. Just eight years earlier, at the age of 20, she embarked on her musical journey with Prelusion—a spectacular debut that introduced Rushen as a formidable new star on the jazz scene.

A classically trained pianist, Rushen scored her big break at 17, earning a chance to perform at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival after winning a high school talent competition. Before long, she caught the attention of legendary label Prestige Records (home to such greats as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Thelonious Monk), who signed the promising teenager to a three-album deal. 

The first of these recordings was Prelusion, which paired Rushen with some of the era’s top-tier musicians, including Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone), Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Hadley Caliman (Flute), George Bohanon (Trombone), Leon “Ndugu” Chancler (drums), Tony Dumas (bass), and Kenneth Nash (percussion). The album also marked Rushen’s first of many projects with her longtime producer and mentor, Reggie Andrews. 

Rushen not only shines as a musician on the album—where she switches between the piano, electric keyboard, synth, and clavinet—but also as a composer, with five original works. Performing primarily post-bop selections (including the energetic opener, “Shortie’s Portion,” and the jaunty “Traverse”), Rushen also incorporates a variety of unique sonic textures, plus elements of fusion, as heard in the reflective, percussion-heavy “7/73,” the bluesy, Rhodes-driven “Haw-Right Now,” and the cosmic “Puttered Bopcorn.” 

Released in 1974, Prelusion introduced Rushen as one of the genre’s most promising talents and marked the beginning of her long and celebrated career. In retrospective reviews, AllMusic praised that the album gave listeners “every reason to believe that [Rushen] would become a major figure in the jazz world,” adding, “One can only speculate on where her career in jazz might have gone had she not switched to R&B singing.” Downbeat, meanwhile, noted that Rushen’s “enchanting debut… boasted her extraordinary gifts as an improviser, composer and arranger” adding that “Rushen’s “impressionistic harmonies and intricate arrangements revealed a maturity well beyond her 20 years.” 

After releasing two more jazz-focused albums (1975’s Before the Dawn and 1977’s Shout It Out), Rushen successfully transitioned into a career as an R&B singer-songwriter. In the ensuing years, she released such best-selling albums as the aforementioned Straight from the Heart (1982), Now (1984), and the GRAMMY-nominated Signature (1997), while hits like “Forget Me Nots” (1982) would later earn new generations of fans through sampling—most famously in Will Smith’s “Men in Black” (1997) and George Michael’s “Fastlove” (1996). 

Beyond her solo career, Rushen is also an esteemed musical director and prolific composer for film and TV, including scores for Waiting to Exhale, Men in Black, HBO’s America’s Dream, and the theme song to The Steve Harvey Show. Among other accomplishments, Rushen stands as the first woman to serve as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th, and 48th GRAMMY Awards, the first woman to hold the role of Head Composer/Musical Director for the Emmy® Awards, as well as the first female Musical Director of both the NAACP Image Awards and People’s Choice Awards.

 

Meshell Ndegeocello | No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin + Tour Dates Announced

Meshell Ndegeocello has released the inspiriting new single “Love,” the second song to be revealed from her forthcoming Blue Note album No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin, a striking homage to the eminent writer and activist James Baldwin to be released Aug. 2 on his Centennial.

Ndegeocello will be marking the album release with a headline performance at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn Festival on Aug. 2. Ndegeocello performs songs from the new album on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert as part of their Black Music Month celebration of Black women artists.

Last month saw the release of the album’s opening track “Travel” paired with the searing spoken word piece “Raise The Roof” by poet Staceyann Chin.

No More Water is a visionary work that is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action. Ndegeocello has created a prophetic musical odyssey that transcends boundaries and genres, delving headfirst into race, sexuality, religion, and other recurring themes explored in Baldwin’s canon. Following 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book, her acclaimed Blue Note debut which won the inaugural GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer renders an immersive and palpable document that is as sagacious, unabashed, and introspective as Baldwin was in life.

Co-produced by Ndegeocello and guitarist Chris Bruce, No More Water features some of the bassist’s frequent collaborators including Bruce, vocalist Justin Hicks, saxophonist (and Omnichord producer) Josh Johnson, keyboardist Jebin Bruni, and drummer Abe Rounds. Also appearing on various songs are vocalist Kenita-Miller Hicks, keyboardists Jake Sherman and Julius Rodriguez, and Executive Director of the NYCPS Arts Office and trumpeter Paul Thompson. The album also showcases powerful spoken word by venerated poet Staceyann Chin and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and critic Hilton Als.

Nearly a decade in the making, the album’s origins began in 2016 during a performance at The Harlem Stage Gatehouse as part of their annual showcase honoring Baldwin. Ndegeocello had delved into Baldwin’s work the year before, including the seminal nonfiction work The Fire Next Time, which she considers “life-changing” and carries with her as a “spiritual text.” Ndegeocello says, “It was just a revelation to me, and it softened my heart in so many ways.”

“Inspired by Baldwin’s most well-known essay, Ndegeocello’s piece—often staged as a church service—employs music, sermon, text, images, and movement, all of which enter into conversation with Baldwin’s monumental and delicate essay about how black bodies were perceived not only by white Americans but by blacks themselves,” writes Als in the album’s liner notes. “The music you hear in No More Water, is Jimmy talking to Meshell and his words meeting the language of her sounds and then coming out again through a multitude of voices, a multitude of sounds and thoughts that bring Jimmy back and give him—finally—his whole and true self, that which he offered up, time and again, if only we knew then how to listen.”

No More Water marks a significant moment of self-discovery for Ndegeocello. She adds that Baldwin entered her life at precisely the right time. “It came when I was ready to look in the mirror. I’ve had to play Plantation Lullabies at a few shows. Looking back, I had an interesting perspective, but the dialogue was limited. It was more like a cathartic experience for a young person of color, whereas now I’m going, ‘How can I get us all to love each other? How can I get us all to see this for what it is?’”

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO – TOUR DATES:

• July 5 – Love Supreme Festival – East Sussex, United Kingdom
• July 7 – Casa del Jazz – Rome, Italy
• July 8 – Bremen Theater – Copenhagen, Denmark
• July 10 – Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents – Marseille, France
• July 12-14 – North Sea Jazz Festival “Artist In Residence” – Rotterdam, Netherlands
• July 16 – Jazz a Sete Festival – Sete, France
• July 19 – Festival Jazz en Ville – Vannes, France
• July 21 – Stuttgart Jazz Open Festival – Stuttgart, Germany
• July 23 – Jazz in Marciac – Marciac, France
• Aug. 2 – BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn – Brooklyn, NY
• Aug. 4 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI
• Aug. 7 – Denver Botanic Gardens – Denver, CO
• Aug. 8 – Ravinia Festival – Highland Park, IL
• Sept. 15 – New Mexico Jazz Festival – Santa Fe, NM
• Sept. 16 – MIM – Phoenix, AZ
• Sept. 20 – The Center for the Arts at the Armory – Somerville, MA
• Sept. 21 – Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center – Albany, NY
• Sept. 22 – Wexner Center for the Arts – Columbus, OH
• Sept. 26 – Infinite Dream Festival – Iowa City, IA
• Sept. 28 – Wisconsin Union Theater – Madison, WI
• Sept. 29 – Door Community Auditorium – Fish Creek, WI
• Oct. 3 – World Café Live – Philadelphia, PA
• Oct. 5 – The Music Center at Strathmore – North Bethesda, MD
• Oct. 6 – New Jersey Performing Arts Center – Newark, NJ
• Oct. 31 – JazzOnze+ Festival Lausanne – Lausanne, Switzerland
• Nov. 1 – Enjoy Jazz-Alte Feuerwache – Mannheim, Germany
• Nov. 3-4 – Stadtgarten Konzertsaal – Cologne, Germany
• Nov. 6-7 – Musikbrauerei – Berlin, Germany
• Nov. 7 – Walter Art Center – Minneapolis, MNNov. 9 – Rockit Festival – Groningen, Netherlands
• Nov. 10 – Le Guess Who? Festival – Utrecht, Netherlands
• Nov. 11 – De Roma – Antwerp, Belgium
• Nov. 12-13 – New Morning – Paris, France
• Nov. 15 – Koko – London, United Kingdom
• Dec. 2-5 – Jazz Alley – Seattle, WA

Michael Sarian | Live At Cliff Bell's

In his third quartet outing, Toronto-born, Buenos Aires-raised, and Brooklyn-based trumpeter and composer Michael Sarian fulfills a lifelong dream of releasing a live album with Live at Cliff Bell’s. It was a somewhat last-minute endeavor, as Sarian hadn’t planned on recording a live album until engineer Jon Georgievski floated the idea shortly before their performance at the legendary Detroit venue. Recorded during their spring 2023 tour, which saw the quartet perform across the Greater Toronto Area, the Northeast, and the Midwest, this live set features Sarian’s longtime ensemble: pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Marty Kenney, and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell. They perform tunes from their previous two albums, alongside new compositions that showcase gritty swing, Armenian sensibilities, and ample room for group exploration and interplay. The quartet’s repertoire is inspired by greats such as Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stańko, Kenny Wheeler, and Paul Motian.

Dedicated to his cousin Nick, “Primo” (cousin in Spanish), is arguably the most ‘straight-ahead’ track of the album. The idea for the composition came after getting a copy of Nicolas Slonimsky’s book, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Sarian based the composition on a scale found on just the second page, in the ‘Interpolation of Two Notes’ in the Tritone Progression section. With the flat two, major third, sharp fourth, perfect fifth and flat seventh, the scale has an altered blues feel to it, which was perfect for Sarian’s primo since he has an affinity for the genre. The marking at the top of the chart is “fast + gritty swing” with no chords to be found, just the scale on which the tune is based.

Sarian began writing “Aurora,” the title track from the quartet’s first album in 2020, on February 15, 2019. Although the word literally means dawn, the composition came after hearing of a mass shooting that day in Aurora, Illinois. The alternation between sus2 and sus4 chords throughout the first section, paired with a simple melody, bear a somber mood, a hopelessness which Sarian felt assuming #Aurora was trending because of the 2012 mass shooting there, only to find out there another had taken place.

Pianist Santiago Leibson masterfully transitions from "Aurora" into the tension-filled "The Pilgrim," dedicated to Enrico Rava (after the Italian trumpeter’s 1975 album The Pilgrim and The Stars). The seven sixteenth-note pickup to this melody is what gave the piece its start, after Sarian heard Rava play it in his solo on the tune “Bella.”  Originally released on Sarian’s 2022 album Living at the End of the World, this piece is a crash course in tension, building over nearly 10 minutes, releasing only at the end.

“Yi Ku Ghimetn Chim Kidi” (I Don’t Know Your True Value) is an arrangement of a piece by Sayat Nova, an 18th century Armenian poet and troubadour. There is a sense of longing and melancholy that is practically built into the melody, and just like the melodies of so many great Armenian composers, it shines on its own. The melody remains true to Sayat Nova’s, with Sarian’s arrangement providing harmonic support moving it forward, emphasizing the sorrow and longing in the composition which bleeds into Kenney’s and Sarian’s solos.

Composed shortly before hitting the road on this tour, “Glass Mountains” is a tribute to the Armenian people of Artsakh (also known as Nagorno Karabakh). Forced out of their ancestral homes by Azerbaijan after a decades long conflict, this enclave which has been Armenian majority for centuries now endures an ethnic cleansing by regimes that deny the Armenian Genocide, and this Armenian’s population’s right to self-determination. The title refers to the region’s mountainous terrain, and that even these mountains can be delicate.

After a stunning bass solo, Marty Kenney sets up the next piece, in what Sarian has dubbed his short Armenian Suite. “Portrait of Haile” was composed in honor of Haile Selassie, former Emperor of Ethiopia who adopted the ‘Arba Lijoch’, a brass band of 40 Armenian orphans (and their director Kevork Nalbandian) who had escaped the Armenian Genocide, and took them under his wing.

Finally, this first set closes out with “Living at the End of the World,” the title track from the quartet’s 2022 studio album, inspired by Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s 1985 novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, wherein the main character spends half of the novel in a town called ‘The End of the World.’ Reading this during March and April of 2020, a time during which the world seemingly was coming to an end, gave Sarian a different perspective on what the end of the world could be: instead of the world as we know it coming to an end, we could approach it as simply a new, temporary space we are living in. The title track is a bluesy shuffle with a few roadblocks thrown in there, keeping the listener and musicians on their feet.

Live at Cliff Bell’s sees the quartet’s affinity for group interplay paired with the freedom and intensity provided by a live performance. We can hear the closeness of the audience, their feedback, cheering and applause, which admittedly caught Sarian somewhat off guard as the ensemble sometimes veered into more exploration than he would have expected Cliff Bell’s clientele to tolerate. It captures a cohesive, working group in its prime and in the moment.

Live at Cliff Bell’s is out September 13, 2024 on CD and digital.

Joe Taylor | Westside Chill

Guitarist Joe Taylor successfully reentered the contemporary jazz space earlier this year after a seventeen-year absence with the release of his “Westside Chill” album, showcasing his rootsy blend of instrumental jazz, Americana twang and earthy blues. Now the ten-song set that he wrote and was produced by four-time Grammy winner Steve Rosenthal will be released by Moonwatcher Music on vinyl on National Vinyl Record Day, which is August 12.    

“With the release of ‘Westside Chill’ on vinyl, I wanted to take part in the great Vinyl Revival. I’ve always loved the way it sounds and feels when I pull a vinyl record off the shelf, drop the needle, and enjoy the art behind both the music, the cover and the package, experiencing it the way the artist intended. I hope folks will appreciate ‘Westside Chill’ in the same fashion,” said Taylor who is flanked on the album by jazz pianist Jeff Franzel, bassists Woody Lingle and Brian Stanley (Bryan Adams), drummer Steve Holley (Paul McCartney & Wings), percussionist Blair Shotts, and flutist John Ragusa. 

Taylor spent decades splitting his time between New York City and the South Carolina Lowcountry with both cultures informing his recordings, including “Westside Chill.” In the mid-80s, he used to walk past the basketball court that bass legend Jaco Pastorius played ball on. That memory inspired the tribute tune “Jaco’s Court,” which drops as a single on September 21, the anniversary of the prodigious Pastorious’s passing. 

“Right down the street from the Blue Note, Jaco used to play pickup basketball on the West Fourth Street Courts. I’d walk by and see him out there balling. That court has now become one of the most important sights in the city for streetball. Perhaps Jaco's spirit lingers there as well," said Taylor who wrote the song with Lingle, who is featured playing lyrical basslines evocative of Pastorious’s style of play on the track. 

Taylor now spends all his time living in the placid Lowcountry along South Carolina’s rural coast. Active in the local community, the guitar player will perform a benefit concert at Sunny Side on Edisto on August 2 accompanied by Franzel, Paul Adamy (bass) and Ray Marchica (drums). The show supports the restoration of the historic Hutchinson House, one of the only Black-owned, Reconstruction era plantations in the South. The following night, the quartet will play at Fox Music in N. Charleston, SC. 

“Westside Chill” and its positive reception have Taylor reinspired and encouraged to build on the momentum. It’s his first album since 2015’s “Sugardust in the Devil Wind” and his first contemporary jazz project since 2007’s “Accidental Sugar.” The New York City-based Franzel, Adamy and Marchica will trek to the Lowcountry ahead of the two South Carolina concert dates to begin recording Taylor’s next collection. Taylor is eager to further explore modern jazz while remaining true to his Southern roots. 

   

The Paul Carlon Quintet | Blues For Vita

Saxophonist and composer PAUL CARLON has been lucky to be surrounded by talented, artistic women throughout his life. His mother was a visual artist who set up large canvases in a workspace she carved out for herself in their home. Her art and her work ethic were huge influences on the young musician. But his late sister, also a visual artist, and his wife, formerly an actor, also embody the artistic spirit that nurtures Carlon’s creativity. 

Carlon is releasing BLUES FOR VITA, his sixth album as a leader. His previous albums have all been Latin-tinged and feature different band configurations. His albums include Tresillo (2017), La Rumba Is a Lovesome Thing: Tribute to Billy Strayhorn (2013), Roots Propaganda (2008), Other Tongues (2006), and Looking Up (1998). The Latin Jazz Network said, “A big man with an expressive face, Mr. Carlon espouses a tone much larger than himself, which is by turn gritty, rapturously lyrical, sparkling and luscious.” 

BLUES FOR VITA features the Paul Carlon Quintet, comprising top New York players who have performed with a Who’s-Who of jazz and Latin jazz stars. The band includes EDDIE ALLEN (trumpet), HARVIE S (bass), HELIO ALVES (piano), and WILLIE MARTINEZ (drums). 

Carlon comes from a musical as well as an artistic family. Two of his older siblings were string players, but Carlon was drawn to the saxophone and decided to follow his own path. Although he earned a degree in English Literature from Cornell University, he chose music as his career and moved to New York City after graduating. He quickly became part of the thriving 90's jazz scene, honing his craft at all-night cutting sessions at Small's Jazz Club. 

Carlon’s playing and composing has been influenced by the greats who came before him. In particular, he cites Woody Shaw, who was known for revolutionizing the technical and harmonic language of modern jazz trumpet playing, and Gene Ammons, a bebop saxophonist who integrated blues and R&B in his music. But Carlon has also been very influenced by Afro-Caribbean music and has performed in various Latin jazz bands.  

Not long after arriving in New York, Carlon became a member of bassist Phil Bowler's band, Pocket Jungle. The band was popular in the 1990’s but stopped performing in 2002. After a 12-year hiatus, the band was reconstituted and recorded a well-received album, which included one of Carlon’s compositions. In the late 90s, Carlon began working with two Afro-Cuban jazz groups, Grupo los Santos and Cuban trombonist Juan Pablo Torres' quintet. He also performs and records with many other groups, including Bronx Conexion (a Latin jazz big band), The McCarron Brothers (a quartet that plays a blend of funk, fusion, and free jazz), Alex Ayala's Afro Puerto Rican Big Band, Schapiro 17 Jazz Orchestra, The Tony Romano Quartet, Earotica (led by bassist John Lang), Goussy Célestin's Ayiti Brass, and Nation Beat, for which he serves as the musical director. 

BLUES FOR VITA comprises five originals by Carlon, two standards, and one off-the-beaten-track composition. Blues, R&B, bebop, and Latin jazz are clearly present in Carlon’s hip sax work. The album opens with “Dee Dot,” the most straight-ahead composition on the album with echoes of Art Blakey’s bands. Carlon composed the tune quickly at a rehearsal and just as quickly came up with the name when he scatted the melody for the band. 

Other Carlon originals include “Colored Paper,” a tune with a driving Latin beat and an Eddie Harris vibe. He named the title track, “Blues for Vita,” for his wife, Lavita, whose image is beautifully rendered on the cover art. Composed with a blues form, the piano plays an ostinato that underpins Carlon’s and Allen’s solos. 

“Unmute” was influenced by Woody Shaw’s driving music. Carlon derived the name from the many Zoom sessions he participated in during the pandemic lockdown. “Zooming into the Void,” the closing track and the last Carlon original on the album, was also named after his pandemic Zoom sessions. The tune is a bossa nova with a darker, moodier vibe. 

The two standards on the album are “Never Will I Marry” and “It Never Entered My Mind.” Carlon’s approach to “Never Will I Marry” was inspired by the iconic Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley version, but the band takes it in new directions with propulsive solos by Carlon and Alves. “It Never Entered My Mind” is a Latin-tinged, slow cha-cha with a menacing feel. 

“Isabel the Liberator,” composed by Larry Willis, is rarely performed, and was notably recorded by Woody Shaw. It was also recorded by Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, one of Carlon’s favorites. Since no lead sheets existed, Carlon transcribed it by ear. 

BLUES FOR VITA is a hip, Latin jazz-inflected album by one of the busiest and most inventive saxophonists on the New York jazz scene. Carlon’s playing is solid and soulful, and many of his compositions are bound to become standards for the jazz cognoscenti. 

Wayne Shorter | Celebration Volume 1

Blue Note Records has announced an August 23 release of Celebration, Volume 1, the first in a series of archival releases that the legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter curated before he passed away in 2023. This thrilling 2014 live recording captured Shorter’s acclaimed quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden. The intrepid set includes some of the band’s favorite vehicles of exploration including “Zero Gravity,” “Smilin’ Through,” “Orbits,” “Lotus,” and “She Moves Through The Fair.” The album is introduced today with the single “Edge of the World (End Title),” a theme by composer Arthur B. Rubinstein from the 1983 film WarGames, which is accompanied by a live performance video.

“In the fall of 2022, Rob Griffin started sending a lot of unreleased music for Wayne to sort thru,” writes Carolina Shorter in the album’s liner notes. “He started listening around the clock. I’d be doing something around the house, talking on the phone, doing work and he’d yell ‘Carolina! You’ve got to come and hear this shit! Check out what these guys are doing!’ Wayne made detailed notes – some of them are reprinted on this album jacket.”

“When he heard the Stockholm concert, he said ‘this is the album!,’” she continues. “Then he started listening to more things and, over time, realized that it was going to have to be more than one record. He originally wanted to call the collection Unidentified Flying Objects – thinking of the notes everyone played as being UFOs! In January 2023, when he was hospitalized for the last time, he continued picking tracks and laying out the albums. His ‘Never Give Up’ spirit, which underlines his entire mission, was stronger than ever and he was excited to release more music. It was only in the last 10 days of his life that he realized he was not going to be around to see it to fruition. He started feeling the urgency of celebrating life and decided to change the name of the collection to Celebration. I said ‘Yes Wayne! Let’s celebrate!!! That’s what it should be called. A celebration!’”

Blue Note will also be celebrating Shorter’s legacy with several reissues of his classic albums including a Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of Odyssey of Iska (1970) out July 5, a Classic Vinyl Edition of JuJu (1964) out August 16, and a Blue Note Authorized Dealer exclusive blue vinyl reissue of Speak No Evil (1964) which will be available August 9 at participating independent record stores. Celebration, Volume 1 is available for pre-order now on limited edition Blue Note Store exclusive color vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and digital download.

Jon De Luca |The Brubeck Octet Projecr

Ever curious about the underexplored corners of jazz history, alto saxophonist Jon De Lucia breathes new life into one important such chapter with

The Brubeck Octet Project, dropping July 12 on his own Musæum Clausum Recordings imprint. The album documents De Lucia and his octet’s rediscovery and reconditioning of the arrangements played by the

Dave Brubeck Octet, the innovative 1946-1950 unit with which the iconic West Coast pianist began his career. It will be available in CD and digital formats as well as a limited edition 180g Translucent Red Vinyl release, in the style of the original Fantasy Brubeck records.

De Lucia’s octet predates The Brubeck Octet Project. He formed the band in 2016 for another project at City College of New York (where he then taught), but it quickly became a weekly reading band, leaving the saxophonist constantly in search for new (old) repertoire. It was this quest that led him to the archives at Mills College (Brubeck’s alma mater), where he found many of the Brubeck Octet’s original handwritten charts in the papers of the band’s tenor saxophonist and arranger, Dave Van Kriedt. 

“They were a bit of a mess, full of mistakes and scribbles that made them hard to read,” recalls De Lucia in the album’s liner notes. “I always wanted to take the time to put them into notation software, fix the mistakes, rehearse a band, and record this music anew. Finally, thanks to support from CUNY and the Brubeck and Van Kriedt families, it has happened.” 

Jazz being jazz, however, De Lucia also sought ways to make his own mark on the work—and to allow his collaborators to do the same. He wrote new intros and backgrounds for the arrangements (by Brubeck, Van Kriedt, and baritonist/clarinetist Bill Smith), and, more importantly, expanded their solo spaces, giving his musicians room to have their say.

Listeners get to reap those rewards. From De Lucia’s own muscular alto workout on “I Hear a Rhapsody” to pianist Glenn Zaleski, tenor saxophonist Scott Robinson, and trumpeter Brandon Lee’s gleeful runs on “IPCA” to Robinson and trombonist Becca Patterson’s thoughtful, enigmatic submissions on “What Is This Thing Called Love,” the players offer irresistible interpretations and expressions on the historical arrangements. 

As such, the music both remains a product of its time—an experimental thrill ride of the early bebop era—and crackles with renewed vigor and spontaneity at the hands of De Lucia and his cohorts. “This is the first time in 74 years that this music has been played and recorded again,” the alto saxophonist writes. “I think the results turned out great!” Indeed they have.

Jon De Lucia was born November 26, 1980 in Quincy, Massachusetts—just outside Boston, a garden spot for musical studies (and jazz studies in particular). Studying with Berklee College of Music woodwind professor Dino Govoni since high school, De Lucia headed directly for the Boston conservatory after graduating—where he was quickly diverted from his ambition to write video-game music. 

Instead, he was inspired by the high caliber of classmates like Kendrick Scott and Walter Smith III to live up to their jazz chops. De Lucia added a performance major to his studies, and, in addition to jazz, also studied folkloric musics from around the world. His lens widened yet again after he graduated from Berklee in 2005 and moved to New York, where he played and studied with a variety of jazz masters and also began exploring the world of Baroque music. 

Thus his first recording was a postbop jazz sextet session, Face No Face (2006), but De Lucia’s longest-lived project is his Luce Trio, with guitarist Ryan Ferreira and bassist Chris Tordini, now Tatsuya Sakurai and Aidan O’Donnell, which improvises on the compositions of Bach, Handel, and Dowland as well as Baroque-influenced jazz composers like John Lewis and Jimmy Giuffre. 

It was in pursuit of the lattermost composer that De Lucia formed his Octet in 2016, a vessel for investigating Giuffre’s 1959 octet arrangements for saxophonist Lee Konitz. The Octet turned out to outlast the Giuffre project, and De Lucia’s desire to keep replenishing its repertoire led him to the Van Kriedt and Brubeck arrangements that form the basis of his Brubeck Octet Project.

The Jon De Lucia Octet will perform music from The Brubeck Octet Project at Birdland, 315 W. 44th Street, on Sunday 7/14, 5:30pm.