Nostalgia
By Matt Collar
Annie Lennox's 2014 covers collection, Nostalgia, finds the former Eurythmics vocalist soulfully interpreting various pop, jazz, and R&B standards. In many ways, Nostalgia works as a companion piece to her similarly inventive 2010 album, the holiday-themed Christmas Cornucopia. As with that album, Lennox eschews predictability by picking an unexpected set of songs and producing them with detailed care. While Nostalgia certainly fits nicely next to any number of other standards albums by veteran pop stars, it does nothing to diminish Lennox's distinctive style. On the contrary, working with producer Mike Stevens, Lennox has crafted an album that brings to mind the sophisticated, contemporary sound of her original studio releases while allowing her to revel in the grand popular song tradition. Moving between evocative piano accompaniment, orchestral numbers, moody synthesizer arrangements, and even some rollicking small-group swing, Lennox takes a theatrical -- yet always personal -- approach to each song, finding endlessly interesting juxtapositions and stylistic combinations to explore. She references Miles Davis' plaintive take on the Porgy and Bess classic "Summertime," tenderly evinces a combination of Billie Holiday and Sade on "Strange Fruit," and draws on both Aretha Franklin and Screamin' Jay Hawkins for "I Put a Spell on You." Elsewhere, tracks like "I Cover the Waterfront" and "Mood Indigo" bring to mind similar recordings from Carole King and Bryan Ferry. Ultimately, even without Nostalgia's impeccable production, in the end it's Lennox's burnished, resonant vocals that steal the focus here, and just like the songs she's picked, their beauty will likely stand the test of time.
Jason Moran
All Rise : A Joyful Elegy For Fats Waller
By Steve Leggett
Yeah, All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller is a tribute to the great stride pianist, but in Jason Moran's hands, it's not what one would expect. This album isn't full of stride piano, but it is full of Fats Waller's larger persona as a performer. Waller mixed jokes and comic routines, and did whatever he could to connect with his audience in his act, and if his piano playing was the hinge, it sat on a door that opened straight to the dancefloor. This album had its beginnings when Moran was commissioned by the N.Y.C. performing arts venue Harlem Stage Gatehouse to create a tribute to Waller as part of its Harlem Jazz Shrines series. Moran came up with a unique combination of piano, vocal jazz, and dance that used Waller's signature songs as springboards. Collaborating with singer Meshell Ndegeocello, wearing a large papier-mâché mask of Waller's head created for him by Haitian artist Didier Civil, and adding interpretive dancers, Moran called his conceptual tribute The Fats Waller Dance Party, and All Rise is the studio-recorded rendition of the project. It's a stunning mix of piano jazz with moody, winsome late-night vocals, and it has plenty of get-up-and-go when it's time for it. If it doesn't sound much like Waller, one could imagine Waller would love it, and his signature songs are well represented, including "Ain't Misbehavin'," which Ndegeocello sings with a wistfully sultry edge, "The Joint Is Jumpin'," which is just that, a joyous and yet graceful romp, and a ethereal take on "Ain't Nobody's Business," which in Moran and Ndegeocello's hands becomes a dark, moody, and elegantly defiant statement in modal jazz. This set manages to be reverent to Waller's original recordings, but since facsimile was never the goal, it also manages to create a completely new veneer for them, and the end result is a marvelous tribute that still retains its own shape and coherency.
Track Listing:
By Steve Leggett
Yeah, All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller is a tribute to the great stride pianist, but in Jason Moran's hands, it's not what one would expect. This album isn't full of stride piano, but it is full of Fats Waller's larger persona as a performer. Waller mixed jokes and comic routines, and did whatever he could to connect with his audience in his act, and if his piano playing was the hinge, it sat on a door that opened straight to the dancefloor. This album had its beginnings when Moran was commissioned by the N.Y.C. performing arts venue Harlem Stage Gatehouse to create a tribute to Waller as part of its Harlem Jazz Shrines series. Moran came up with a unique combination of piano, vocal jazz, and dance that used Waller's signature songs as springboards. Collaborating with singer Meshell Ndegeocello, wearing a large papier-mâché mask of Waller's head created for him by Haitian artist Didier Civil, and adding interpretive dancers, Moran called his conceptual tribute The Fats Waller Dance Party, and All Rise is the studio-recorded rendition of the project. It's a stunning mix of piano jazz with moody, winsome late-night vocals, and it has plenty of get-up-and-go when it's time for it. If it doesn't sound much like Waller, one could imagine Waller would love it, and his signature songs are well represented, including "Ain't Misbehavin'," which Ndegeocello sings with a wistfully sultry edge, "The Joint Is Jumpin'," which is just that, a joyous and yet graceful romp, and a ethereal take on "Ain't Nobody's Business," which in Moran and Ndegeocello's hands becomes a dark, moody, and elegantly defiant statement in modal jazz. This set manages to be reverent to Waller's original recordings, but since facsimile was never the goal, it also manages to create a completely new veneer for them, and the end result is a marvelous tribute that still retains its own shape and coherency.
Track Listing:
Put Your Hands on It; Ain't Misbehavin'; Yacht Club Swing; Lulu's Back in Town; Two Sleepy People; The Joint Is Jumpin'; Honeysuckle Rose; Ain't Nobody's Business; Fats Elegy; Handful of Keys; Jitterbug Waltz; Sheik of Araby / I Found a New Baby.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Lisa Harris: vocals; Charles Haynes: drums, vocals; Stephen Lehman: saxophone; Tarus Mateen: bass; Jason Moran: Rhodes, piano, Wurlitzer; Charles Haynes: drums, vocals; Meshell Ndegeocello: vocals; Josh Roseman: trombone; Leron Thomas: trumpet, vocals; Nasheet Waits: drums
Kenny Barron & Dave Holland
Kenny Barron & Dave Holland
The Art Of Coversation
By Shaun Brady at JazzTimes
There are conversations meant solely for the ears of those involved, full of jocular camaraderie and inside references. And then there are those designed to be overheard, where the dialogue is meant to engage and enlighten anyone who is listening in as well as the speakers themselves. With a musical relationship dating back nearly three decades, pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland could certainly engage in the former, but The Art of Conversation is a vivid example of the latter. These 10 tracks all showcase the profound mastery of two artists who share an easy rapport and elegantly restrained expressiveness.
The warmth of their collaboration beams through on Holland’s opening, “The Oracle,” where Barron spins buoyant melodic variations around his partner’s buoyant bassline; and on their brisk tandem spin on Charlie Parker’s “Segment,” which contains the disc’s most engaging back-and-forth. But the album features a wide range of moods: the wistful lyricism of Barron’s “Rain,” on which Holland leads with the heartfelt melody; the simmering groove of Holland’s “Dr. Do Right”; and the presciently elegiac “Waltz for K.W.,” a dedication to Kenny Wheeler recorded six months before the trumpet great’s death. Monk, as always, is a touchstone, with a breezy take on “In Walked Bud” and the sharp-angled, Monk-meets-Ellington stroll of Barron’s “The Only One.” Holland’s achingly beautiful “In Your Arms” is an indelible highlight, with both articulating simultaneous melodies with breathless delicacy.
Dave Holland
Prism
By Dan Bilawsky
Bassist Dave Holland first became a leader-on-record with Conference Of The Birds (ECM, 1973), a now-classic outré quartet session. That initial leader date portrayed Holland as a restless seeker, willing and eager to explore the inner workings of group dynamics and the outer reaches of convention, and he's done little to alter that perception of himself in the intervening years. Holland has, with band after band and album after album, continually broadened his outlook, creating a vast and enviable body of work along the way. Now, he celebrates four decades of leadership by introducing another potent foursome to the world.
On Prism, Holland reunites with three musical spark plugs from his past: guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who appeared on the bassist's Extensions (ECM, 1989), drummer Eric Harland, who worked side-by-side with Holland in The Monterey Quartet and then joined him for Pass It On (Dare2 Records, 2008), and pianist/Fender Rhodes man Craig Taborn, who's shared the stage with the bassist on a number of occasions over the past few years. As individuals, these gentlemen rank high on many a critic and fan's list of players; together, they form the most exciting and awe-inspiring quartet to debut on record this year.
The music this band delivers on Prism is like a vortex, sucking in everything within earshot. Interlocking patterns, excoriating lines, killer grooves and blazing solos are par for the course. Democracy prevails in all aspects, as each band member contributes music, muscle and more along the way. "The True Meaning Of Determination" is the perfect example of this one-for-all and all-for-one philosophy. Holland draws focus with his bass introduction, melodic delivery is a joint venture between two band mates, Eubanks' guitar singes everything in sight, Taborn takes the spotlight and has a blast chopping up the time with Harland, and everybody comes together to drive it home. It's nine-plus minutes of pure, heart-pounding bliss, and it doesn't even stand above the other tracks; nearly every performance here has a similar endorphin-producing effect. The band does operate in other areas, from the bluesy and soulful ("The Empty Chair (For Clare)") to the contemplative and free floating ("Breathe"), but they retain a group identity no matter where the music takes them. They sound best when they burn, but they still sound like the same unit when they simmer or stay put.
Prism isn't simply a great album by a great band; it's as good as jazz records come. Four months may separate this album's release and the close of 2013, but this one may have already sealed it up for "Album Of The Year" honors.
Track Listing:
By Dan Bilawsky
Bassist Dave Holland first became a leader-on-record with Conference Of The Birds (ECM, 1973), a now-classic outré quartet session. That initial leader date portrayed Holland as a restless seeker, willing and eager to explore the inner workings of group dynamics and the outer reaches of convention, and he's done little to alter that perception of himself in the intervening years. Holland has, with band after band and album after album, continually broadened his outlook, creating a vast and enviable body of work along the way. Now, he celebrates four decades of leadership by introducing another potent foursome to the world.
On Prism, Holland reunites with three musical spark plugs from his past: guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who appeared on the bassist's Extensions (ECM, 1989), drummer Eric Harland, who worked side-by-side with Holland in The Monterey Quartet and then joined him for Pass It On (Dare2 Records, 2008), and pianist/Fender Rhodes man Craig Taborn, who's shared the stage with the bassist on a number of occasions over the past few years. As individuals, these gentlemen rank high on many a critic and fan's list of players; together, they form the most exciting and awe-inspiring quartet to debut on record this year.
The music this band delivers on Prism is like a vortex, sucking in everything within earshot. Interlocking patterns, excoriating lines, killer grooves and blazing solos are par for the course. Democracy prevails in all aspects, as each band member contributes music, muscle and more along the way. "The True Meaning Of Determination" is the perfect example of this one-for-all and all-for-one philosophy. Holland draws focus with his bass introduction, melodic delivery is a joint venture between two band mates, Eubanks' guitar singes everything in sight, Taborn takes the spotlight and has a blast chopping up the time with Harland, and everybody comes together to drive it home. It's nine-plus minutes of pure, heart-pounding bliss, and it doesn't even stand above the other tracks; nearly every performance here has a similar endorphin-producing effect. The band does operate in other areas, from the bluesy and soulful ("The Empty Chair (For Clare)") to the contemplative and free floating ("Breathe"), but they retain a group identity no matter where the music takes them. They sound best when they burn, but they still sound like the same unit when they simmer or stay put.
Prism isn't simply a great album by a great band; it's as good as jazz records come. Four months may separate this album's release and the close of 2013, but this one may have already sealed it up for "Album Of The Year" honors.
Track Listing:
The Watcher; The Empty Chair (For Clare); Spirals; Choir; The Color Of Iris; A New Day; The True Meaning Of Determination; Evolution; Breathe.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Dave Holland: bass; Craig Taborn: piano, Fender Rhodes; Kevin Eubanks: guitar; Eric Harland: drums.
Pedro Araujo
Raiz
By Jota Carlos – produtor e crítico musical
Em pouco mais de dez anos de carreira, grande parte dedicada à música instrumental, com dois discos autorais e o reconhecimento de músicos consagrados, Pedro Araujo vem conquistando seu espaço entre os grandes nomes da guitarra brasileira.
No seu segundo disco, RAIZ, Pedro interpreta composições inéditas e faz releituras de músicas do cancioneiro popular da sua terra natal, São Luís do Maranhão. Sendo também arranjador, Pedro usa de variadas formações instrumentais para colorir os arranjos dando às canções atmosferas diversas, destacando-se “Cheiro do Jasmim”, um arranjo orquestral, e “Tsunami”, arranjada pra big band.
Do disco, inteiramente instrumental, participam músicos como Rui Alvim, Cassius Theperson, Dudu Viana, Danilo Sinna, Eduardo Neves, Carol Panesi, e muitos outros...
“Suas composições têm algo de refinamento, linhas melódicas bem definidas e apreciação pelo detalhe nos arranjos. Raiz, o presente álbum, é recheado de motivos sonoros, um passeio pelo universo de ritmos e canções que apontam para o caminho de maturidade do artista.”
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