Currently #5 on Gavin Jazz this week. Don's release is receiving high praise from DJ's around the country and this recording will be in the top ten next week for air play!
For his tenth record release since his solo debut a decade ago, saxophonist Don Braden has chosen a concept he has been considering for some time: “contemporary standards.” The jazz repertoire has always revolved around popular tunes. Its harmonic genesis was in the hymns and folk tunes of the south. Tin Pan Alley songs and hits from musicals became standard fodder for improvisation and the basis for jazz tunes under assumed names.
The four pop tunes Braden has chosen for this ensemble are from the last quarter of the 20th Century, while most of the popular tunes currently in the jazz repertoire are from much earlier in the 1900s. He has also included four originals — three of his and one by the bassist on this date, Richie Goods - for the recording debut of his Contemporary Standards Ensemble. Completely new jazz compositions can become standards in the jazz catalog if several other artists record them. Other artists have recorded each of these originals and, Don speculates, they might be on their way to becoming jazz standards.
Presenting pop tunes along with new compositions may be a way to lure a new, younger audience for jazz. “I think it’s a way at least to try to bring the people my age to jazz,” Braden says. The pop tunes on this CD should be instantly recognizable to anyone who listened to the radio in the 1970s and 80s, as well as to those who tune in to stations featuring “oldies” from that era. “It makes more sense to add newer music to the overall repertoire,” Braden continues. “It gives new listeners to jazz a comfort zone, a tune they know and can relate to in a jazz context. Then they can better understand the jazz tunes on the CD.”
Don Braden - Tenor Sax, Vincent Herring - Alto Sax, Terrell Stafford - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, George Colligan - Piano, Richie Goods - Bass, Ralph Peterson - Drums
Artist: LEDONNE,MIKE
Title: "BAGS GROOVE-TRIB.TO MILT JACKS"
Media: Compact Discs
Label: DTR
Rel: 2001-07-31
List: $16.98 (Save 25%)
Your Price: $12.75
"Mike LeDonne's talent comes two fold on this excellent tribute to the unparalleled 20th century master of the vibraphone. Ballads and Blues, Milt Jackson's unchallenged forte, was shared with this youthful pianist from the most insightful perspective: the bandstand. I can personally vouch for this as Mike's predecessor in this special capacity as a former member of many of the groups Milt lead over the years, excluding his charter membership in MJQ, jazz's premier leaderless configuration."
"Mike exudes allegiance to the great master, providing special treatments of many of Milt's best known works while effortlessly exhibiting his own definitive style in the process. As a musician who shared many great musical moments with the master I'm actually blushing with pride and admiration."
Cedar Walton
Artist: SUSSMAN,RICHARD
Title: "FREE FALL"
Media: Compact Discs
Label: DTR
Rel: 2001-06-26
List: $16.98 (Save 25%)
Your Price: $12.75
In a way, the title Free Fall is a bit misleading for this first album, since repeated listenings make clear that Richard Sussman has already arrived. As a pianist, his sure (if nonetheless mortal) technique is put into the service of a flair for well-wrought melody and firmly structured solos: moreover, all the tunes are his, and as a composer he has already stamped them with his interest in dark, deep, and even mysterious themes. As a band leader, he has assembled here a quintet that could take its place on any stage in the land. If you had to pin a label on the music, I suppose you’d reach for “mainstream”; I offer it mainly to emphasize that his is neither fusion, free, nor passe, but rather a contemporary acoustic band playing in a time-honored jazz format.
Sussman’s influences are still strong enough to be immediately identified, as on the gorgeous Lady Of The Lake (named for the shrouded character of Arthurian legend). Its drifty, romantic melody is redolent of Keith Jarrett, but Sussman wears the aroma well and makes it nearly his own: his short, well-built solo is a model of conception, using thematic mutations to tie together the flightier runs before the unheralded Schneider’s moving, throaty tenor break. Sussman, it turns out, is also a thoughtful arranger, choosing only the most appropriate soloist for each of the tracks and avoiding a jam session sloppiness.
The title tune sports Harrell, the thinking man’s Freddie Hubbard, burning through a brief duet with drummer Williams and opening into a tune that Wayne Shorter might have written for the Miles Davis band in 1966. Sussman seems to slow the tempo in his own solo, which starts unaccompanied: moments later Williams reinserts the beat so smoothly that one senses it was never really gone. As usual, Williams is uniformly excellent, a maelstrom with taste: he and Richmond, who doesn’t so much play his solos as let them play him, form an impeccable rhythm team with chemistry to spare.
Sussman’s flirtation with other compositional voices is clarified on Street Fair, lightly scored for flute and trumpet, a rousing, festive Latin-styled tune of the sort Chick Corea popularized early this decade. That is, it’s rousing and festive within Sussman’s own compositional guidelines of complexity, mild modality, and a latent mystique. The influences are clear, but just as clearly filtered through Sussman’s own considerable talent.
Other highlights: the gently motivic, richly colored piano solo on Colors: Schneider’s spirited tenor work throughout: the guest shots by Bergonzi, a fast, tough, raucous player and a contrastingly oblique melodist: Harrell’s continuing grace under fire. These, and Sussman’s smoothly muscled playing and straightforward thinking, make Free Fall a paradoxically weighty flier. There isn’t profundity on every track, but there’s nothing less than solid, barely repressed music, and even some close brushes with inspiration. For a first LP, that ain’t bad ‘tall.
Neal Tesser - Down Beat Magazine **** (4 Star) Review.
Artist: BURNS,KEN JAZZ
Title: "VARIOUS-PBS SPECIAL"
Media: Compact Discs
Label: CBS
Rel: 2000-11-14
List: $59.98 (Save 30%)
Your Price: $41.95
This 5-CD box set represents most of the music featured in the PBS television series. Included in this set is a comprehensive overview of the music, from ragtime to swing, and from bebop to fusion; nearly 100 songs - among the best and most important jazz recordings ever made; an essay by award-winning writer and long-time Burns collector, Geoffrey C. Ward; detailed annotations and discography by producer Michael Cuscuna and jazz historian Loren Schoenberg. These CDs have been digitally remastered, utilizing 24-bit HDCD sound technology.
Disc: 1 1. Star Dust - Armstrong 2. Soon One Mornin' - Mississippi 3. Memphis Blues - Lieut. Jim Europe's Band 4. Livery Stable Blues - Original Dixieland Jazz Band 5. Charleston - James P. Johnson 6. Chimes Blues - King Oliver 7. Back Water Blues - Bessie Smith 8. The Pearls - Jelly Roll Morton 9. Dead Man Blues - Jelly Roll Morton's 10. Wild Cat Blues - Clarence WilliamsFive 11. Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home) - Clarence Williams Five 12. Sugar Foot Stomp - Fletcher Henderson 13. Heebie Jeebies - Louis Armstrong 14. Potato Head Blues - Louis Armstrong 15. West End Blues - Louis Armstrong 16. The Mooche - Duke Ellington 17. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo - Duke Ellington 18. Black Beauty - Duke Ellington 19. Mood Indigo - The Jungle Band 20. There Ain't No Sweet Man (Worth The Salt Of My Tears) - Paul Whiteman Orchestra 21. Singin' The Blues - Frankie Trumbauer Orch 22. Riverboat Shuffle - Frankie Trumbauer Orch 23. Hotter Than 'Ell - Frankie Trumbauer Orch 24. I Got Rhythm - Ethel Waters
Disc: 2 1. It Don't Mean a Thing - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 2. Echoes of Harlem - Duke Ellington 3. Moten Swing - Benny Moten's Orchestra 4. St. Louis blues - Louis Armstrong 5. Ain't Misbehavin' - Louis Armstrong 6. For Dancers Only - Jimmie Lunceford 7. King Porter Stomp - Benny goodman 8. Rose Room - The Benny Goodman 9. Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) - Benny Goodman 10. Jumpin' at the Woodside - Count Basie 11. Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today - Count Basie 12. Lester Leaps In - Count Basie 13. Oh, Lady, Be Good! - Jones-Smith 14. Without Your Love - Billie Holiday 15. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday 16. God Bless the Child - Billie Holiday 17. Three Little Words - Art Tatum 18. Rebecca - Pete Johnson 19. Harlem Congo - Chick Webb 20. A-Tisket, A-Tasket - Chick Webb 21. Shine - Django Reinhardt 22. Dear Old Southland - Noble Sissle Orchestra
Disc: 3 1. Body and Soul - Coleman Hawkins 2. Cotton Tail - Duke Ellington 3. Take the 'A' Train - Duke Ellington 4. Begin the Beguine - Artie Shaw 5. In The Mood - Glenn Miller 6. Well, Git It! - Tommy Dorsey 7. Solitude - Billie Holiday Orchestra 8. Drum Boogie - Gene Krupa 9. Salt Peanuts - Dizzy Gillespie 10. Groovin' High - Dizzy Gillespie 11. Ko-ko - Charlie Parker 12. Scrapple From the Apple - Charlie Parker 13. Enbraceable You - Charlie Parker 14. Get Happy - Bud Powell 15. Epistrophy - Thelonious Monk 16. Straight, No Chaser - Thelonious Monk 17. Manteca - Dizzy Gillespiea 18. Moon Dreams - Miles Davis 19. Just Friends - Charlie Parker 20. Rockin' Chair - Louis Armstrong 21. They Can't Take That Away From Me - Sarah Vaughan 22. Walkin' Shoes - Baker & Mulligan 23. Fine and Mellow - Billie Holiday
Disc: 4 1. Doodlin' - Horace Silver 2. I Get A Kick Out of You - C. Brown & Max Roach 3. St. Thomas - Sonny Rollins 4. Django - Modern Jazz Quartet 5. Take Five - Dave Brubeck 6. So What - Miles Davis 7. Giant Steps - John Coltrane 8. Rick Kick Shaw - Cecil Taylor 9. Chronology - Ornette Coleman 10. Original Faubus Fables - Charles Mingus 11. Acknowledgment - John Coltrane
Disc: 5 1. Hello, Dolly! - Armstrong 2. Desafinado - Stan Getz 3. In a Sentimental Mood - Duke Ellington 4. Tourist Point of View - Duke Ellington 5. E.S.P. - The Miles Davis 6. Spanish Key (single version) - Miles Davis 7. Birdland - Weather Report 8. Mister Magic - Grover Washington 9. Rockit - Herbie Hancock 10. Un Ange en Danger - Ron Carter 11. Tanya - Dexter Gordon 12. Soon All Will Know - Wynton Marsalis 13. Death Letter - Cassandra Wilson 14. Take The "A" Train - Lincoln Center Orch
