In
the soul, r&b and jazz
categories, here are some of the best of 2006.
Before we go on, however, I have a question:
If the soul of Sam Cooke passed into Marvin Gaye, where is it
now?
> The Maven of Make Out Music: Billy
Griffin - Like
Water (25 years on the job, and still no respect)
>
Beachier Than Thou: Angel -
Where Have You Been? (soul man-throwback Angel Rissoff
could be the male Norah Jones if Jones had the passion of, say, Teena
Marie: suh-weet, mostly, and sometimes hot)
> Philly Redux: Silk - Always
and Forever (is this the most eponymous band, ever?)
> Hey, It's The Temps: The
Temptations - Reflections
(okay, no Eddie Kendricks, no David Ruffin, more like a cover
band, it's true, but still slick)
> Romantic Pop: Lenny Welch -
It's
All About Love (that's right, the voice of Since I Fell for
You and the living link to Archie Bleyer)
> Overlooked Soul Classics: The Persuaders
- Made
To Be Loved (one-hit wonders, maybe, but they
made a lot of great music...and still do)
> Grits and Gravy: Chairmen of the
Board - All
In The Family (this is the music John Fred wanted to
make: still funky after all these years)
> Kitchen Sink: Gwen McCrae -
Gwen
McCrae Sings TK (so hot, so versatile - McCrae
morphs through every style from jazz
to disco - and who knew Latimore wrote Rockin' Chair)
> Soul-Pop Diva: Roberta Flack
- The
Very Best of Roberta Flack (she sounds better now than she did
in her heyday, for some reason: can it be that the jazz-fueled
pop movement has done no more than inure us to pop-smothered
jazz?)
> The Jersey Sound: Brunswick
Records Top 40 R&B Singles - 1966-1975 (40 memorable tracks
by the likes of Jackie Wilson, The Young Holt Trio, Tyrone Davis,
Barbara Acklin, Gene Chandler and The Chi-Lites
> Classics Improved by Spontaneity:
Motortown
Revue: 40th Anniversary Collection (despite the gaseous packaging,
great to have live Motown at last - outstanding performances
throughout, but disc #4, Motortown Revue Live from 1969 is a
must-have, by itself worth the price of entry - the set is a reminder
of what a deep bench Coach Gordy had to draw on)
> Motor City Hit Machine: Holland-Dozier-Holland
- Heaven
Must Have Sent You (64 monsters - 64! who can match that?:
(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave, Where Did Our Love Go, Baby I Need Your
Loving, Baby Love, Come See About Me, Stop! In The Name Of Love, I Can't
Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), Can I Get A Witness, This Old
Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You), Jimmy Mack, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera....
>
Soul Sophisticate: William Bell
- New
Lease on Life (what it took three men to do in Detroit, Bell
did in Memphis all by his lonesome - if all he wrote was You Don't
Miss Your Water, he'd deserve a spot in songwriter heaven, but then
there's I Forgot to Be Your Lover and Born Under a Bad Sign
and on and on - I still listen to his brilliant 1967 album The
Soul of a Bell all the time)
> The God of Motor City: Marvin Gaye
- Gold
(like most Motown artists, Gaye has more greatest hits albums than he
had hits, but this one's pretty thorough)
> Jazz
Megaproducer on a Roll: Jason Miles - What's
Going On (following his eye-opening explorations of the music
of Ivan
Lins - a must have; saxophone master Grover
Washington, Jr. - this, too; and Weather
Report - not so much; and his inspired take on Miles Davis, Miles
to Miles, jazz keyboardist
Miles scores again with this appreciative collection of classics associated
with the aforementioned Mr. Gaye)
> Hidden Treasure: Donna Summer
- Gold
(hidden in plain site, that is: like that of other soul singers who
got mired in disco - think of the great Johnny Taylor - Summer's rep
never recovered - or maybe it was that cut with the sounds of fancy
shtupping that did her in; whatever, she deserves better...way better)
>
Eclectic Soul Pop: Traciana Graves - Tales
of a Prodigal Daughter
(Harlem-born, French-bred - an improvement over French bread, AfroPop-influenced
- in a fairer world you'd hear her album every time you turned on the
radio - Graves runs a performance series on the East Coast called Diaspora
Soul which gives you an idea where she's coming from)
> Just Another Sam Cooke Wannabe: Aretha
Franklin - Live
At Fillmore West (Deluxe
Edition) (incredible double album: I was there;
now you can be, too)
> Hodge Podge: Natalie Cole -
Leavin
(covers of Neil Young, Kate Bush, Fionna Apple...not Unforgettable,
but not Pink Cadillac, either)
> Great American Songbook, Jazz
Division 1: Gladys Knight -
Before Me (...and amazingly good: puts the class
back in classics)
> Great American Songbook, Jazz
Division 2: Diana Ross - Blue
(with Dinah Washington in her heart and Oliver Nelson and Benny
Golson doing the charts, Ross' solid jazz
tracks wipe out the few pop tunes - she should have stayed away from
I Love You Porgy, though; luckily for you, with the push of a
button, you can)
> Great American Songbook, Jazz
Division 3: Smokey Robinson - Timeless
Love (former Motown acts find Jazz
- or Jazz Adjacent - the way
Right-Wing Child Molesters in the U.S. Congress find Jesus...but with
a lot more soul)
>
Great American Songbook, Boomer Division:
Jazz
Pop to a Latin Beat: Janis Siegel - A
Thousand Beautiful Things (you have to trust me on this one:
modern pop songs - Nellie Mckay, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega - to
a Latin American beat plays a thousand times better than it reads on
paper, plus I've always found Janis Siegel terminally lame before this)
> Great American Songbook - Jazz
at the Pops: Jazz
Vocalists: Hear and Now (contemporary material on disc 1 and
jazz standards on disc 2,
36 in all, from Little Jimmy Scott, Nancy Wilson, Abbey
Lincoln and Ernie Andrews to Diana Krall, Kurt
Elling, Kevin Mahogany and Cassandra Wilson, with
a little Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Norah Jones
thrown in for marketability; plus the proceeds benefit jazz
education)
> Great American Songbook, an Elegy:
Paul Motian and Trio 2000+1 - On
Broadway, Vol. 4: Or the Paradox of Continuity (anybody who
thinks youth is an advantage in jazz
will not find confirmation of that notion in the fourth volume of standards
by the great timekeeper Paul Motian and another of his brilliant pickup
bands. The first of his Broadway series to feature a singer, the too
seldom heard Rebecca Martin, finds the 75-year-old drummer joined
also on piano by a favorite co-conspirator, the erratic Masabumi
Kikuchi with whom he did compelling tributes to Edith
Piaf and Kurt
Weill)
> The Betty Carter Award for Obsessive Devotion
to Emotional Truth: Cassandra Wilson - Thunderbird
(without Wilson's adventuresome and passionate jazz
explorations of the blues, folk and pop catalogs,
there would be no Norah Jones - this release, with ever-astonishing
T-Bone Burnette at the controls, is her richest and most accomplished
yet)
> Retro Houston Soul: Trudy Lynn
(with Calvin Owens Blues Orchestra)
- I'm
Still Here (Lynn first recorded too late to capture the attention
she deserves, but she is a master of the raw style that bridges the
gap from juke blues to soul ballads - think Peggy
Scott-Adams; Calvin Owens was B.B. King's musical director for years
- "Blues Party" is right)
> Boomer Eclectica: Ray Parker Jr.
- I'm
Free (guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and hitmaker's
angst-ridden new album is no masterpiece, but as affecting as hell;
his Yes, Dear)
> DooWop Gets Funky: Charles Wright
- Finally
Got It Wright (proving you can't keep a soul man down)
>
The Return of the First Lady of Southern Soul:
Candi Staton - His
Hands (back from Jesusland, her formidable pipes intact, Staton
presents a sweet-soul set mostly of country tunes by the likes of Merle
Haggard, Red Simpson and Will Oldham that put you in mind
of her early hits, such as Stand by Your Man and In the Ghetto;
just got this from YourMusic.com
and playing it night and day)
> Neo-Soul: Wendell B. - Good
Times (file between Luther Vandross and Will Downing)
> Great American Songbook, Smooth Soul Division
- Acid and Silk: Maysa - Sweet
Classic Soul (beautifully produced covers of hits by the likes
of Rose Royce and Teddy Pendergrass, as good or better
than the originals, by a great performer who has never connected commercially
- five albums, five labels about says it all)
> Soul Food Recipe o' the Day:
Hil St Soul - SOULdified
(lead vocalist Hilary Mwelwa can sing anything: classic
soul, smooth jazz, up-tempo
funk, gospel, whatever, plus she can write - the future of smooth
soul is safe, at least on the other side of the pond)
> Memphis Soul, Over Easy: Jackie
Payne Steve Edmonson Band - Master
Of The Game (harking back to the halcyon days of Willie Mitchell
and Hi Records)
> Southern Fried Erotica: Ms. Monique
- Soul
Sessions: Chapter 1 (smooth and sassy - Millie Jackson updated,
and you have to love the optimism of that "Chapter 1")
> Great American Song Book, Blues
Division: Linda Hopkins -
The Living Legend LIVE! (always riveting on stage, Hopkins
is sizzling -- at 82! -- in these performances of blues
classics - Evil Gal, Stormy Monday, Drown in My Own Tears - at
Catalina Bar & Grill, backed by Michael Konik & His Tasty
Band - must be trial living up to a designation as a, no, The
Living Legend, but the seasoned Hopkins still has game)
> Hip Hop Muddies the Waters: Boo
Boo Davis - Drew,
Mississippi (on this themed outing, his fourth, arranged and
produced by Nu Blues' Ramon Goose, who
btw lays down solid slide and finger-picked guitar in the process, singer-harmonica
virtuoso Davis finally secures his footing, piling modern soul influences
on the foundation of South Side-style blues)
>
Blues
As It Is Played Now: Ronnie Baker Brooks - The
Torch (a lot of cuts and a lot of guest stars - in this case,
Jellybean Johnson, Jimmy Johnson, Eddy Clearwater,
Willie Kent, Al Kapone, J.W. Williams, Michael
Bland, papa Lonnie Brooks - is ofttimes a sign of desperation,
and Brooks fils has been too long overlooked, but The Torch
is mostly a fine survey of the blues as it's
played today, despite the singular silliness of the title tune)
> Dirty Blues
- like dirty martinis or dirty rice not dirty movies:
Billy Jones - tha'
Bluez (eccentric indie blues guitarist
- note: he calls it bluez, so you know it's a conceptual thang,
Jones is worth searching out live the next time you're in the Bay Area)
> Doo Pop: One
Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found
(120 cuts, by everyone from the Shangri-Las, Barbara Lewis
and Maxine Brown to Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon
and The Toys, with nary a hit in sight)
> Cold Sweat: Clipse - Hell
Hath No Fury - (after 4 years of silence in a label dispute,
the John Fogertys of rap - okay, I'm just trying to piss you off - are
mad as hell and every bit as brilliant as they were on their debut Lord
Willin' an eon ago)
> Coke-Rap: Ghostface Killah -
Fishscale
(Clipse might have started it, but Mr. Killah, a Wu-Tang Clan alumnus,
brings it to a head with wildly imaginative storytelling, ragged soul
singing and potty-mouthed rhymes)
> Political Avant-Garde Jazzed-Up Rock:
Bobby Previte - Coalition
of the Willing (the unique and virtuosoistic Previte matches
the power organ of Jamie Saft and the guitar magic of the equally
eclectic Charlie Hunter to come up with an album that can stand
comparison with his great collection of mighty miniatures, The
23 Constellations of Joan Miró)
> Jazz
Spirituality, Affirmative Action, and a Great Bass Line: Paradise
- Jazzfunkhiphopoetry
("hip-hop-a-tree"?: jeezis - luckily, talent trumps political
correctness)
> Post-Bop Communism: Spirit of Life
Ensemble - Little
Oasis (the Jersey City-based aggregation is a "multicultural
collective"- think of the socio-political soul of Ozomatli in the straight-ahead
body of Cannonball Adderley)
> AltJazz Spirituality:
SounDoctrine - Endurance:
A Soundtrack to a Non Existent Movie
( I know: the concept, the title, the band's name, the typography...it
all sounds pretty dire, but this funky fusion outing is compelling and
infinitely listenable)
> Slow Jamz: Rob and Tha Soul Brother
- Show
Some Luv (disc 1 is an "old school house party in
a box;" disc 2 is jazz-fusion at its most palatable)
> Nu-Jazz
Funk: The Rebirth - This
Journey In (up-to-date throwback to the classic soul-band: or
maybe it's Earth Wind and Fire reborn in the age of hip-hop)
> Get Yo' Funk On: Seven Eleven -
Live
In Paris (real drums, real bass, real chicken-scratch guitar,
real honkin' horns...and rap: Trouble Funk updated...sort of)
>
Empowerment, Responsibility and Redemption: Eugene IV
- Starving
Artist (in the world of Indie Hip-Hop, Atlanta saxman Mr. IV
is a pioneer - like Traciana Graves and Trudy Lynn and Sharon Jones
and Maysa and Angel Rissoff and Billy Griffin, he belongs on the friggin'
radio, so call KCRW now, or for that matter, Starbucks, where it is
an article of faith that all music comes only from the 60s or the 90s)
> Raw Funk: What
It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves (91 tracks deep and five
hours long!, this multi-artist, 4 cd set mines renowned, legendary,
little-known, rare, not-to-say obscure grooves from the vaults of Atlantic-Atco
and Warner Bros. -- not only hard-to-find Wilson Pickett, Bar-Kays,
Curtis Mayfield, and Earth Wind & Fire, but unreleased
Aretha Franklin, trippy 6ix's I'm Just Like You
and Stanga's Little Sister, stark Hard Times by
my old pal Baby Huey with the Baby Sitters; and the Meters
as Rhine Oaks doing Tampin' - to soul what punk is to rock and
roll)
> Southern Fried Funk: Southern
Fried Funk (lemme say it again, southern fried funk, mostly
N'Orlins: Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey, Z.Z. Hill, Eldridge Holmes,
David Batiste, Chuck Carbo, Jewel Bass...)
> Jazz-Pop:
Ginetta's Vendetta - La Dolce Vita ( see what you can
achieve with a pocket trumpet if you know how to blow? On stage Ginetta
plays hot, sings cool, looks phenomenal - if you spot the name on a
marquee in Vegas, go! Unfortunately, can't find this album anywhere
- if you do, lemme know)
> Laid-Back Post-Bop in a Modal Groove:
The Bennie Maupin Ensemble - Penumbra
(he's on your Bitches Brew and Headhunters albums; maybe after
this you'll remember his freakin' name)
> Smooth Sax R&B: Steve
Cole - True
(call Cole when you can't get David Sanborn, and why not? Avis is just
as righteous as Hertz)
> The Gold Standards: Geri Allen
- Timeless
Portraits And Dreams (keyboard mastery backed by such mainstream
heavyweights as Ron Carter and Jimmy Cobb; also last year:
Zodiac
Suite: Revisited, a beautiful reading by Allen with Buster
Williams on bass and Billy Hart and Andrew Cyrille
on drums, of the legendary set of compositions by Mary Lou Williams)
> Journeyman Genius: Billy Hart
- Quartet
(speaking of Billy Hart, check out this focused, driving set featuring
the drummer's working band, pianist Ethan Iverson, tenor saxophonist
Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street playing mostly Hart
originals)
> Post-Bop Mainstream if ever there was:
Onaje Allan Gumbs - Remember
Their Innocence (one of the great collaborators in jazz,
keyboardist-producer- arranger-songwriter Gumbs had an even better album
last year, the live Return
to Form; you want 'em both)
> Post-Bop DIY: Eric Person -
Reflections
(a "best of" chosen by the artist himself, and fit intro to Person's
sax, not hurt by some great trumpet work by Dave Douglas)
> Blues &
Bop: Dave Douglas -
Meaning and Mystery (his personnel inspired by legendary 1968 Miles
Davis Quintet, the gifted and indefatigable Douglas leads his quintet,
with Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes, through a beautiful set of Douglas
originals, paced by Donny McCaslin's glistening tenor solos)
> Jazz
Vocals with a Neo-Soul: Frank McComb - 1995
Bootleg (an unreleased album by pianist and vocalist McComb)
> Yeah, G for Gritty: Andreas Grosskopf
- File
Under: G (but saxman Grosskopf stirs smooth vocalizing by Charlotte
Karlstedt into his funk goulash)
> World Jazz
- yich!: Lee Ritenour - Smoke
'N' Mirrors (never been much of a Ritenour fan - I know, my
bad, but this cheerful, star-studded romp is exceedingly easy on the
ears if not excessively hard on the noggin)
> World Jazz
- yeah!: Winard Harper Sextet - Make
It Happen (the exception that proves the jewel, this exploration
of African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms is a riveting seventy-eight minutes
of jazz)
>
Jazz
as Folk Music: Esperanza Spalding - Junjo
(bassist Spalding is joined by Cuban sidemen, pianist Aruan Ortiz
and drummer Francisco Mela, making her warm acoustic bass and
airy wordless vocals the main ingredients in a scruptious musical cubano)
> Redemptive: Trio Beyond - Saudades
(I usually find John Scofield's funk vamping tedious, but here,
in the company of Larry Goldings' keyboards - organ and Wurlitzer
electric piano - and Jack DeJohnette's skins, in a live tribute
to the late drummer Tony Williams, he finds the perfect setting)
> Straight-No-Chaser, With A Bite:
Paul Samuels - Speak
(saxman Greg Osby's here, too, so you know the music is a mix
of edgy and accessible)
> Rocking Jazz:
Don Byron - Do
The Boomerang: The Music of Junior Walker (Byron, a dabbler
in every variety of jazz and
jazz-adjacent music - think
klezmer - plays homage to the greatest r&b honker of all time)
> Yakety Sax, Parenthetically: King
Curtis - Live
At Fillmore West (Deluxe Edition)
(there's a reason he's on every record made between 1958 and 1971)
> Jazz-Funk
Meets Progressive Rock: Vernon Reid and Masque - Other
True Self (I go back and forth between thinking this is pretty
good and thinking it's crap; your take may depend on how much pretense
you can tolerate at one sitting w/o tossing your Jagermeister)
> Soul Groove Hodgepodge: Chico Hamilton
- 6th
Avenue Romp (befitting a drummer in his mid-80s who's done it
all, this album dishes out everything from mainstream jazz
to an unlikely stew of electronica, zydeco and driving bossa nova)
> The Beat Goes On: Charles Lloyd
- Sangam
(more drums - Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain and Lloyd's regular
percussionist, Eric Harland, although the leader himself - in
case you're old enough to have forgotten, Lloyd is the
Forest Flower: Live in Monterey guy from your stoner dorm
years - plays everything from tenor and soprano to flutes, tarogato
(a reed instrument from Hungary that resembles a mournful soprano sax),
piano, as well as some percussion - you'll find yourself thinking of
Rollins and Coltrane: how bad is that?)
> Two Peas in a Pulao: Vijay Iyer
and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Raw
Materials
(altoist Mahanthappa and pianist Iyer, Indian-Americans both, are as
intimate and sympathetic as a pair of Siamese twins)
> Familiar but Fab: Pat Metheny
and Brad Mehldau - Metheny
Mehldau (two jazz
names somewhat familiar to pop audiences, versatile guitarist Methany
and sublime pianist Mehldau bridge, no erase the generation gap
in a scintillating collection of quartet and duo magic)
>
Local Legend: Houston Person - You
Taught My Heart to Sing (one of the great treasures of L.A.jazz,
Person will blow you away with this collaboration with the swinging
ivorist Bill Charlap, himself criminally under-appreciated, a
masterful demonstration of the continuing virtues of mainstream jazz)
> Swing to Soul: Steven Bernstein's
Millennial Territory Orchestra - MTO
Volume 1 (versatile trumpeter Bernstein's nonet is inspired
by Depression-era recordings of territory bands brought up to date,
Walter Page's Blue Devils Meet Mingus, so to speak - no anachronisms
here, though, and you owe it to yourself to hear trombonist Clark
Gayton's wild solos)
> Post-Modern Keyboard Mastery: Keith
Jarrett - The
Carnegie Hall Concert (a surprise from the second most tendentious
living jazz legend - playful,
melodic and, most important, succinct)
> Jimmy Giuffre Lives: The Source
- The
Source (gorgeous, ambitious, inventive, lyrical, energetic collaborative
contemporary music by saxophonist Trygve Seim, trombonist Øyvind
Brække, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, and bassist Mats
Eilertsen - does there not seem to be an extraordinary number of
drummers and trombonists featured on this list?)
> Art School: Andy Biskin - Trio
Tragico (am I going soft? - there was a time when anything smacking
of chamber jazz - Third Stream,
whatever - would have sent me screaming toward the exit, but the mesmerizing
interactions of clarinetist Andy Biskin, trumpeter Dave Ballou
and bassist Drew Gress made me wonder if I should have paid more
attention to those Shorty Rogers bloviations to which I gave such short
shrift lo those many years ago)
> Gas Chamber: Wayne Horvitz Gravitas
Quartet - Way
Out East (normally I'd say, be afraid, be very etc., but these
compositions by keyboardist Horvitz for piano, trumpet, cello, and bassoon
create the opportunity for improvised music of the highest order)
> Serious Fun: Bob Brookmeyer and
the New Art Orchestra: Spirit
Music (okay, this will be the last art-jazz
mentioned in today's lecture, but it has to be admitted that few composer-arrangers
- Ellington?, Stan Kenton? - have used the large ensemble better than
trombonist Brookmeyer whom decades of practice have taught how to make
serious music swing)
> Cold Logic: Gonzalo Rubalcaba:
Solo
(dense, virtuoistic, intellectual to the point of passionlessness, Rubalcaba's
piano is one of the towering voices in contemporary jazz)
> Smart and Hot: Edsel Gomez
- Cubist
Music (Latin jazz
pianist Gomez leads an incredible band - including variously on reeds
Don Byron, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Greg Tardy and Steve
Wilson - through a set of carefully imagined, fired-up explorations
of "cubist" ideas, whatever that means)
> Finger-Poppin' Time: Roy Hargrove
- Nothing
Serious (the rock-solid New Lion Hargrove, playing trumpet and
flugelhorn with his working band - Justin Robinson, alto and
flute; Ronnie Matthews, piano; Willie Jones III, drums;
Dwayne Burno, bass; plus on three cuts the great 'bonist Slide
Hampton - offers rousing mainstream hard bop with Latin seasonings)
> The Future of Jazz (Like So Much Else) Rests
on Europe: Tineke Postma - For
the Rhythm (the title belongs on another outing for a drummer,
but Postma is a Dutch alto and soprano player and composer who creates
gorgeous, swinging, up-to-date mainstream jazz)
> Getting There Is Half the Fun: Tomasz
Stanko Quartet - Lontano
(Miles-ish Polish trumpeter Stanko and pals, starting to loosen
up, finally, after years of playing together, and prodded by the warm
keyboard commentaries of Marcin Wasilewski, generate freely improvised
music as gorgeous as it is cerebral)
> Laid back: Manu Katche - Neighborhood
(the Afro-French drummer Katche, who's worked with Peter Gabriel, Afro-Celt
Sound System, Al DiMeola, Sting, Youssou N'dour, Jan Garbarek
- I guess there's a thread there somewhere - is keeping time here for
a dynamite group that includes Stanko and Garbarek on horns, backed
by Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz from Stanko's band
- although Katche's a delicate player, the addition of Garbarek
gives this release muscle)
> Free Jazz for People Who Think They Don't
Like Free Jazz: Eric Friedlander - Prowl
(doubtless inevitable that a cellist will have a varied career, it's
not surprising that Friedlander's cv extends from Marin Alsop's Concordia
through Joe Lovano and John Zorn to Courtney Love's Hole - here music
of profound improvisational intensity is performed with remarkable grace
by group that includes Andy Laster on alto and
clarinet, Stomu Takeishi on electric bass, and percussionist
Satoshi Takeishi)
> Structured Free Music: Nels Cline
- New
Monastery (L.A.guitar virtuoso Cline and a lineup unusual to
the point of weird - Ben Goldberg, clarinets; Bobby Bradford,
cornet; Andrea Parkins, accordion; Devin Hoff, bass; Scott
Amendola and, on twocuts, Alex Cline, drums - use the compositions
of keyboard genius Andrew Hill to launch a set that is at once free
form and formal, wild and disciplined, challenging and engaging, serious
and fun, and endlessly rewarding)
> Before we get to the best of the 2006 best,
Golden Oldies like
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane At Carnegie
Hall and the boxed set Miles Davis' The
Cellar Door Sessions 1970 would make the best list of whatever
year they were released - did these even come out in 2006?;
I'm not sure, but who cares?)
And now, taking the bronze (and talk about your oldies by goodies):
>
Misbehavin': Fats Waller - If
You've Got To Ask, You Ain't Got It (master of slide piano,
brilliant improviser, great songwriter - "Ain't Misbehavin," "Honeysuckle
Rose" - vocalist nonpareil, and Entertainer of the Year - any
year; 3 cds make it expensive, but it's worth every penny, 'cause it'll
never be off your player: if you buy only one record this year, blah
blah blah...)
Building now...:
> Quiet Daring: Andrew Hill -
Time
Lines (the very same Mr. Hill, undeservedly obscure musicians'
musician, highly creative and technically gifted pianist, composer and
leader, delivers the umpteenth groundbreaking album in a career stretching
back to the 60s, this one enhanced by the sound of the too-little-heard
bass clarinet, here in the able hands of saxophonist Greg Tardy)
And the winner is:
> Jazz Master Returns: Ornette Coleman
- Sound
Grammar (the Free Jazz pioneer's first album in a decade, recorded
when the saxophonist was 75 years old, is the jazz record of the
year: the quartet this time includes son Denardo Coleman
on drums and two bassists, Greg Cohen mostly plucking and Tony
Falanga mostly bowing; hard to recall how much outrage this exuberant,
lyrical, blues-soaked innovator once inspired
- this is soul music and music for the soul
[postscript: if the latter wasn't enough, Pat Methany has re-released
one of the great albums from the Coleman canon as Song
X: Twentieth Anniversary, adding six new tracks and remixing
the original eight - Ornette Coleman rocks!
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