Dick Oatts & Jerry Bergonzi - Saxology

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:51
Size: 137,5 MB
Art: Front

(9:19)  1. Cheepo Steaks
(6:33)  2. Cranial Bypass
(9:19)  3. King Henry
(9:36)  4. L.W.
(9:05)  5. In Passing
(9:02)  6. Mobius
(6:54)  7. Flight Of The Dodo

The meeting of alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi pairs the two veterans in a quartet with bassist Dave Santoro (a frequent collaborator on record dates with Oatts) and drummer Tom Melito. Santoro penned five of the CD's seven tracks, starting with the upbeat, cool "Cheepo Steaks," which has a perky unison line and terrific solos all around. By contrast, the bassist's "Cranial Bypass" is an insistent cooker built upon its opening riff. Santoro's "Flight of the Dodo" sounds like something written by a student of Lennie Tristano, an intricate workout which sounds like it could be an elaborate, well-disguised takeoff on the changes to "All the Things You Are." Oatts' subtle "In Passing" has an infectious quality, with an underlying broody air, while his "King Henry" gradually builds steam, resulting in the most provocative solos of the session. Highly recommended! ~ Ken Dryden https://www.allmusic.com/album/saxology-mw0001724563

Personnel:  Tenor Saxophone – Jerry Bergonzi; Alto Saxophone – Dick Oatts; Bass – Dave Santoro; Drums – Tom Melito

Saxology

---

Terell Stafford - New Beginnings

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:32
Size: 134,7 MB
Art: Front

(7:24)  1. Soft Winds
(5:00)  2. I Don't Wanna Be Kissed
(7:05)  3. He Knows How Much You Can Bear
(6:10)  4. Selah (New Beginnings Suite)
(5:01)  5. La Maurier (New Beginnings Suite:)
(6:18)  6. Berda's Bounce (New Beginnings Suite:)
(7:08)  7. Blame It On My Youth
(5:59)  8. The Touch Of Your Lips
(8:22)  9. Kumbaya

Named after a suite composed for the Dayton, OH, arts organization Cityfolk, New Beginnings buckles under the weight of its diverse choice of material, just holding together due to the musicians' expertise. Terell Stafford bounces between trumpet and flügelhorn, the choice of material ranges from standards to funk, and there must have been a rotating door for the four saxophonists. Luckily, our leader is a "musician's musician," so if listeners consider it a chance to sit in on Stafford's class at Temple, they'll be rewarded. Stafford steps up slowly to Fletcher Henderson's "Soft Winds" before having some fun, assuredly stretching notes before handing it over to Jesse Davis and Harry Allen's more relaxed and soulful approaches. It's a great opener, with solos being bounced back and forth to introduce the players quickly. Mulgrew Miller is in fine form throughout the record, placing his solo between the beats on "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed" and providing ample support for the leads elsewhere. Derrick Hodge's acoustic bass is spot-on, but less compelling when he switches to electric for the anemic funk of "Selah," the "New Beginnings Suite" opener. The three-song suite could be taken apart without anyone noticing, but its structure does allow the sideman ample room to explore on an already sideman-friendly record. Stafford slinks across Stephen Scott's wonderful arrangement of "Kumbaya" and Steve Wilson's brilliant soprano pushes the whole band toward a rapturous ending. It's definitely the album's winner, and as a closer it leaves the listener exalted. ~ David Jeffries https://www.allmusic.com/album/new-beginnings-mw0000035813

Personnel: Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Terell Stafford; Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Derrick Hodge; Alto Saxophone – Dick Oatts, Jesse David;  Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Steve Wilson;  Drums – Dana Hall; Piano – Mulgrew Miller; Tenor Saxophone – Harry Allen

New Beginnings

---

Fred Hersch - Night & the Music

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:07
Size: 142,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:34)  1. So in Love
(6:16)  2. Rhythm Spirit
(6:20)  3. Heartland
(7:28)  4. Galaxy Fragment/You and the Night and the Music
(4:11)  5. Boo Boo's Birthday
(5:33)  6. Change Partners
(5:54)  7. How Deep Is the Ocean
(5:52)  8. Gravity's Pull
(6:21)  9. Andrew John
(7:35) 10. Misterioso

Pianist Fred Hersch is proving himself to be not only a solid mainstream jazz pianist but also an imaginative and creative musical force. His Leaves of Grass (Palmetto, 2005), with vocalist Kurt Elling broke new ground by setting the poetry of Walt Whitman to written and improvised musical composition incorporating jazz and traditional "heartland American motifs. Fred Hersch Live at the Bimhuis (Palmetto, 2006) offered a panoply of solo piano music at a high level of sophistication and technique. On Night and the Music, Hersch joins forces with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits, using the richly interactive and expressive piano trio format (as powerfully developed by Bill Evans and taken further by Keith Jarrett) to form a latticework of images and musical ideas that is both highly listenable and relentlessly probing. The tracks include several originals, some American Songbook standards, and two Thelonious Monk compositions. The three musicians function as a tight, integrated unit sustaining stylistic integrity and steadiness of purpose such that the total impression is that of a unified exploration of the possibilities inherent in a series of tri-alogues about a few key ideas initiated by Hersch at the keyboard. The thematics of the album are more implied than stated, encouraging and allowing the listener to bring in his or her own understanding. 

The overriding motif is the dialogue between personal human experience and the cosmos, a dualistic mythos of Enlightenment philosophy that was a recurrent preoccupation of none other than Beethoven. Thus, for example, an original called "Galaxies is combined with the standard "You and the Night and the Music. Monk's "Boo Boo's Birthday is a personal testament, while his "Misterioso haunts us with a reach towards something beyond the human, something cosmic. "Change Partners contrasts with "Gravity's Pull. And so on, in an alternating exploration of possibilities inherent in the "starry nights of both Van Gogh and the astronomers. There are also some echoes of the late Beethoven in the complex counterpoint that emerges among Hersch, Gress, and Waits as they brood together on the vicissitudes of Fate and what it all might mean. This CD is conservative in its layout of what could be a coherent nightclub set rather than a juxtaposition of discordant variation that is characteristic of some of Hersch's other recordings. A comparison with the groundbreaking Bill Evans trio's At the Village Vanguard (Riverside, 1961) is inevitable. Both are non-stop introspective explorations (coincidentally the title of one of Evans' best albums). However, Evans was undeniably a romantic, while Hersch is anything but sentimental. On this CD, the music is presented as a series of puzzles and conundrums examined with Zen-like detachment or perhaps, in another regard, the mathematical precision of J.S. Bach. One is indeed moved, but not so much by the depth of feeling as by the imposing architecture of the musical development itself. ~ Victor L.Schermer https://www.allaboutjazz.com/night-and-the-music-fred-hersch-palmetto-records-review-by-victor-l-schermer.php

Personnel: Fred Hersch: piano; Drew Gress: bass; Nasheet Waits: drums.

Night & the Music

---

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen - This Is All I Ask

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen - This Is All I Ask

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop 
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:37
Size: 123,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:57)  1. O, Tysta Ensamhet
(5:25)  2. I Skovens Dybe Stille Ro
(4:44)  3. Traces Of The Past
(4:00)  4. Just In Time
(4:39)  5. Summer Song
(5:01)  6. The Song Is You
(9:12)  7. This Is All I Ask
(6:38)  8. As Is
(5:54)  9. Taking The Chance On Love
(4:04) 10. Fantasy In D Minor

It is surprising that first-call bassist Niels Pedersen has recorded relatively few dates as a leader during his decades-long career; This Is All I Ask proves to be one of his most eclectic and rewarding CDs, as he's accompanied by guitarist Ulf Wakenius and drummer Jonas Johansen, and several special guests. His singing, lyrical tone on his instrument comes across right away, especially on the two traditional melodies "Quiet Solitude" and "Tranquility in the Woods," the latter featuring pianist Oscar Peterson in a relatively rare appearance as a sideman during his later years. The European pop singer Monique is someone Pedersen discovered when he heard her on his daughter's radio; he showcases her on a funky original called "Summer Song" (not to be confused with Dave Brubeck's well-known piece of the same name). 

The Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund, who occasionally worked with pianist Bill Evans when he toured Europe, is joined by alto sax great Phil Woods and Pedersen's trio for a heartfelt, swinging take of "Taking a Chance on Love," while Woods is the sole guest heard on the slow, very emotional rendition of "This Is All I Ask." Pedersen's trio tracks are all first-rate as well. His virtuoso side comes across in another original work, "Traces of the Past," while his playful post-bop reading of the old show tune "Just in Time" is the cooker of the entire set. Not widely distributed outside of Europe, this is easily one of Niels Pedersen's finest recordings. ~ Ken Dryden https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-is-all-i-ask-mw0000040329

Personnel: Bass – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen; Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Ulf Wakenius; Alto Saxophone – Phil Woods; Drums – Jonas Johansen; Piano – Oscar Peterson; Vocals – Monica Zetterlund 

This Is All I Ask

---

Charlie Hunter, Lucy Woodward - Music! Music! Music!

Styles: Vocal And Guitar Jazz
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:35
Size: 123,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:49)  1. Soul of a Man
(4:44)  2. Can't Let Go
(6:47)  3. Plain Gold Ring
(3:57)  4. Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
(5:54)  5. The One I Love is Gone
(4:56)  6. Wishing Well
(4:13)  7. Be My Husband
(5:10)  8. I Don't Know
(4:52)  9. Angel Eyes
(3:45) 10. You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
(4:24) 11. Music! Music! Music! (Put Another Nickel in)

Music! Music! Music! will cement the revelatory impression guitarist Charlie Hunter and vocalist Lucy Woodward leave upon attendees of their concerts. Having repaired to the studio in November 2018, the duo maximized the spontaneity of those proceedings through the enlistment of drummer Derrek Phillips. adding a spark that further ignited the keen chemistry the pair had honed on stage. In recent years, Charlie Hunter has revealed a predilection for the blues that may very well have led to this fruitful partnership. It certainly stands him in good stead on the vintage R&B of Ruth Brown's "I Don't Know" and even more so during the antique likes of Blind Willie Johnson's "Soul of a Man." On a particularly saucy take of Bessie Smith's "You've Been a Good Ole Wagon," he simultaneously digs a groove Phillips deepens with his kit, then elaborates on the melody lines with as much relish as Woodward. As on the sultry title track, the latter embraces the role of earthy chanteuse, extracting and articulating the emotions at the core of the material without any discernible affectation. The breakdown late in "Soul of a Man" is just the first instance of how the singer's voice functions as a musical instrument in and of itself. On "Can't Let Go," the vocalist not only elucidates the words, but stretches notes, injects fills and mirrors Hunter's fast fretting on his 'Big 6' guitar. In marked contrast to her staccato approach there, fully in keeping with the beat of "Plain Gold Ring," Lucy Woodward floats above the guitar and percussion, the soft timbres of her voice rising and falling as she anticipates the chord progression and its accompanying accents, the end effect of which is wholly hypnotic. The unity of the Hunter/Woodward/Phillips trio couldn't be more apparent than on "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Bonded as the individuals are, each nevertheless emphasizes a separate component of the tune, always in proportion to what the others are doing. So, the emotion carried in the lyrics unfolds through the woman's rapturous delivery, punctuated with syncopated guitaring and assertive drum work. The action is even more kinetic on Terence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well" which effectively serves as a gateway to the album's homestretch, a passage that accelerates through "Be My Husband," Hunter, Woodward and Phillips enacting an audio dance here that could hardly sound more delightful or compelling. The range of this album's eleven tracks, each of which clocks in at roughly four to seven minutes, belies the sparse accompaniment of unadorned vocals. Spacious sound quality emanates from Dave McNair's mastering of the recordings overseen by Stephen Lee Price in High Point, North Carolina: these two technical experts capture what is a surprisingly visceral impact given the spare arrangements. "Angel Eyes," for instance, might prompt a thumbnail description of Music! Music! Music! as a collection of torch songs with a kick, but such a glib summary hardly does justice to the combustion of talent quietly ablaze on this record. ~ Doug Collette https://www.allaboutjazz.com/music-music-music-charlie-hunter-self-produced-review-by-doug-collette.php

Personnel: Charlie Hunter: guitar; Lucy Woodward: vocals; Derrek C. Phillips: drums.

Music!Music!Music!

---