After years making fiercely original trio music with bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston, NYC-based tenor saxophonist JD Allen had one goal in mind with *Love Stone*: sustained and lyrical beauty. With the same rhythm section—and guitarist Liberty Ellman adding harmonic color and insightful solos—Allen plays only ballads, showcasing his warm, full-bodied tone first and foremost. The sound is sumptuous, and the tune choices (including the folk song “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies”) are fresh and unexpected.
Master jazz guitarist John Scofield marks his 66th birthday with *Combo 66*, leading a youthful quartet through new original music that embodies the swing, grit, and groove he’s developed throughout his influential, prolific career. Drummer Bill Stewart is the one constant from previous outings, as versatile and invigorating a rhythm machine as ever, spiritually in sync with the nimble and deep-toned bassist Vicente Archer (Robert Glasper, Nicholas Payton). Pianist and organist Gerald Clayton, with his refined soloing chops and harmonic cunning, really gets Scofield—his decades of fluency in both acoustic and electric jazz—to an amazing degree. In the mellow organ waltz “Uncle Southern,” the churning, swampy groove of “Willa Jean,” the blistering, modern swing of “Icons at the Fair,” and the West Coast-style bebop of “King of Belgium” (a Toots Thielemans tribute), we hear the fruitful synthesis of languages that Scofield has spoken with distinction from his earliest years on.
This is a welcome digital version of saxophonist-composer Wayne Shorter’s Grammy-winning 2018 *Emanon* project, initially released as a triple-length set with accompanying graphic novel. The first album features the 85-year-old jazz legend’s long-running quartet in the studio with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, whose conductorless fluidity suits the quartet’s agile improvisation. Shorter is widely considered jazz’s best living composer, but here fans have the chance to hear his sprawling classical writing. While Shorter’s compositional influences for these orchestral tracks range from John Williams to Aaron Copland, they also bear witness to Shorter’s own storied career: On “Pegasus,” we get a fanfare from his 1966 classic *Speak No Evil*; we hear painterly woodwind voicings on “The Three Marias,” first recorded in an electric fusion version on 1985’s *Atlantis*. Recent live recordings of the quartet in London make up the other two albums. This highly influential group (Shorter, pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade) revisits the aforementioned orchestral material fast and tight, as if in a sports car, also covering Shorter tunes like “She Moves Through the Fair” and “Adventures Aboard the Golden Mean.” It’s not hard to hear the style and spirit of Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Weather Report, and other brilliant associations of Shorter’s career in this quartet’s passionate rapport. *Emanon* is nothing less than the fulfillment of a lifetime vision for Shorter.
Put veteran trumpeter Eddie Henderson with master pianist Kenny Barron and New Orleans-bred alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, and the music will go deep. Bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Mike Clark also bring versatility and momentum to a varied set, including Henderson’s transformation of “After You’ve Gone” (a Swing Era burner) into a lush ballad and John Coltrane’s “Naima” into a bright waltz. With Miles Davis’ “Fran-Dance” and Woody Shaw’s “The Moontrane,” Henderson honors fellow trumpet greats in compelling style.
"With its sweet mix ballads and bop, BE COOL proves to be, for the moment, Henderson's best." -- Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz, 7 July 2018 "A textbook on how a band should, and could sound if everyone is on the right page and attitude...This album is a timeless work of art. Hang it up on your wall!" -- George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly, 21 May 2018 *** Before he walks out the door on his way to a gig, Eddie Henderson always gets two words of advice from his wife: be cool. The legendary trumpeter has taken that mantra to heart with his album "Be Cool," which shows just how hot cool can get. Of course, if you're going to be cool it helps to surround yourself with the coolest of the cool, and Henderson has done just that: his smokin' quintet also features saxophonist Donald Harrison, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Essiet Essiet, and drummer Mike Clark. Together, the band conjures smoldering funk, lush ballads, broad-shouldered swing, and bristling bop -- in all, a prismatic display of the many facets of cool. Henderson asks the same of his sidemen; hence, Barron's uncharacteristically funky "Smoke Screen," which opens the album on a lively note. "Usually you don't hear Kenny playing funky like that," Henderson says. "He's a consummate pianist and a consummate trio player, but he really rose to the occasion on this Horace Silver-type tune." From now on, Eddie Henderson has a ready response whenever his wife chimes in with her regular reminder. With scintillating interpersonal chemistry, tasteful but captivating soloing, and a stellar melodic sense, one spin of this album is enough to prove that Henderson has taken the words "Be Cool" deeply to heart.
In a striking follow-up to 2016’s *The Declaration of Musical Independence*, veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille joins guitarist Bill Frisell once again for *Lebroba*. But rather than a quartet with electronics, this outing features a sparse trio with no bass. It also sets a precedent as the first playing encounter of Frisell and avant-garde trumpet icon Wadada Leo Smith. Each player has his own history on the ECM label, and together they have a magical way of making those histories interweave: “Lebroba,” Cyrille’s bluesy, loping theme, is a portmanteau of Leland (Mississippi), Brooklyn, and Baltimore, the players’ birthplaces. The program is concise, with Smith’s multipart Alice Coltrane tribute being the most expansive piece. Frisell’s “Worried Woman,” originally from his *Beautiful Dreamers* album, opens in a tense minor key with floating rhythm, while Cyrille’s “Pretty Beauty” closes the set in a more pastoral and dreamlike mood.
