New Jazz Releases – 10/21/2024
By Russell Perry
Diego Rivera
A bit of a thin week for new releases, but not without merit. Diego Rivera ups his composing game with a ten-part suite on the Day of the Dead and we have new releases drifting to the edges from Anna Webber and Kevin Sun.
Diego Rivera – Ofrenda (Posi-tone Records, released 10/11/2024). Terell Stafford – trumpet, Diego Rivera – tenor saxophone / soprano saxophone, Art Hirahara – piano, Boris Kazlov – bass, Rudy Royston – drums.
Ofrenda is a ten-part suite composed for Día de los Muertos by tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera (With Just A Word previewed 02/19/2024). Unlike much of the latin or latin-influenced jazz that we hear today, the extended cultural references here are to Mexican music not Cuban or Brazilian. Not coincidentally, the great Mexican painter / muralist after whom the saxophonist is named painted a piece with the same title in 1931, also depicting the Day of the Dead. Once again Rivera’s work features Posi-tone stalwarts Art Hirahara on piano, Boris Kozlov on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums, with the quartet amply supported by excellent straight-ahead trumpeter Terell Stafford. Several of the pieces carry a stirring hymn-like vibe, as would fit the theme. Highly recommended.
Review: Making A Scene
Brandon Seabrook – Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic Records, releases 10/18/2024). Brandon Seabrook – guitars / banjos / tapes.
String player Brandon Seabrook harnesses multiple guitars, banjos and various sonic effects into a very idiosyncratic solo effort.
Review: The Big Takeover, The Tonearm
Anna Webber – simpletrio2000 (Intakt Records, releases 10/18/2024). Anna Webber – tenor saxophone / flute / bass flute, Matt Mitchell – piano, John Hollenbeck – drums.
This release marks the third of multi-reedist Anna Webber and her simpletrio of fellow improvisational players Matt Mitchell on piano and John Hollenbeck on drums. Tense and edgy in large part, these carefully composed and well-played pieces are restrained and layered. Webber continues to be one of the more compelling young players on the scene. Recommended.
Review: Avant Music News
Kevin Sun – Quartets (La Reserve Records, releases 10/18/2024). Kevin Sun – tenor saxophone, Dana Saul – piano, Walter Stinson -bass, Matt Honor – drums & Kevin Sun – tenor saxophone, Christian Li – piano, Walter Stinson – bass, Kayvon Gordon – drums.
Tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun has a new double CD release, both with quartets featuring regular collaborator bassist Walter Stinson (Onyx Collective, Adam O’Farrill). The first disc features players from Sun’s last epic (Depths of Memory previewed 11/13/2023) – pianist Dana Saul and drummer Matt Honor. Sun shows a lot of range from abstract to quite melodic, the latter more consistently on the second disc (including standards Estate and On The Street Where You Live). Recommended.
Review: AllAboutJazz (Mark Corroto), AllAboutJazz (Dan McClenaghan)
Aaron Parks – Little Big III (Blue Note, releases 10/18/2024). Aaron Parks – keyboards / piano, Greg Tuohey – guitar, David Ginyard, Jr – bass / keyboards, Jongkuk Kim, drums / percussion.
Pianist Aaron Parks (Gregory Groover, Jr, Joshua Redman, Terri Lyne Carrington) has a great jazz pedigree and a solid track record recording with his quartet Little Big. However, when a jazz artist begins to describe their work as “post-genre”, I am on the lookout for the result to be less jazz that I had hoped, and this is the case with Parks’s latest.
Review: AllAboutJazz
Dwayne Clemons – Center of Gravity: Live at Smalls (Clear Music, released 10/18/2024). Dwayne Clemons – trumpet, Amanda Sedgwick – alto saxophone, Aaron Johnson – tenor saxophone, JinJoo Yao – piano, Paul Gill – bass, Taro Okamoto – drums.
While currently based in Copenhagen, trumpeter Dwayne Clemons has a long-standing home at the club Smalls in New York to which he has returned for his second live recording there (Live at Smalls, 2015). This time the band is a sextet with Amanda Sedgwick’s alto and Aaron Johnson’s tenor joining the leader in the front line, giving a rich and full sound. The program is a set of jazz classics (Barry Harris, Fats, Waller, Monk, JJ Johnson) plus two from Amanda Sedgwick.
Review: Paris Move, AllAboutJazz
Adrian Younge – Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Jazz Is Dead 021 (Jazz is Dead, released 10/04/2024). Cast of thousands.
Once again the Jazz Is Dead crew have released a collaboration with some of their under-recorded heroes, this time from Ghana and Brazil . As is usual for recordings in this series, there are a ton of musicians involved and the music is heavily orchestrated and electric – neither of which characteristics get much traction with me. Who knows, you might love it.
Laird Jackson – Life (Self Produced, released 10/01/2024). Jeff Haynes – percussion, Marvin Sewell – guitar, Gregoire Maret – harmonica, Michael Manring – bass, Charlie Burnham – violin, Premik Russell Tubbs – sax / EWI, Brandon Ross – guitar, Eugene Friesen – cello, Jennifer DeFrayne – piano, Sean Harkness – guitar / bass, Doug Weiss – bass, Candace Coates – harp.
Vocalist Laird Jackson has released her third disc, 22 years after her second, featuring handsome vocals in a very spare setting, much verging on a cappella.
I hope that something here tickles your eardrums.
Russell Perry, Jazz at 100 Now!
If your music isn’t changing your life, you’ve simply picked the wrong songs. – Ted Gioia
