Jeremy Pelt - November

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:08
Size: 121,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:14)  1. Mata
(8:09)  2. Avatar
(5:42)  3. Clairvoyant
(5:55)  4. Dreamcatcher
(5:34)  5. Phoenix
(5:44)  6. Rosalie
(3:54)  7. Monte Cristo
(6:05)  8. Nephthys
(6:48)  9. 466-64 (Freedom Fighters)

In the same way that Roy Hargrove's Earfood (Emarcy, 2008) updated Lee Morgan's Cornbread (Blue Note, 1965), so Jeremy Pelt's November updates Miles Davis' Miles Smiles (Columbia/Legacy, 1966). If creativity and art can be evaluated on both the vertical and horizontal, Morgan's and Davis' offerings represent horizontal progressions of the art of jazz into new areas, where Hargrove's and Pelt's are vertical elaborations of those previous collections. Jeremy Pelt (with his band Wired) last offered Shock Value: Live at Smoke (MaxJazz, 2007), an exploration of the style Miles generated with Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time (Legacy, 2001). Pelt returns to a fully acoustic format on November, but this music is no more wooden than Miles' groundbreaking second quintet recordings were. 

November is a fully realized post-bop suite, a jazz Also Sprach Zarathustra. "Mata" is five-plus minutes of introduction, a free form recital with no resolution. Here and throughout the disc we can hear the spirit of the late Anthony Tillman Williams, who's drumming for Miles Davis, continues to touch all aspects of jazz percussion almost 50 years later. Pelt's compositions are all tightly angular and anxious, both probing and airy. His trumpet is tart and sweet, the tone very much his own. The choice of JD Allen on tenor saxophone was a deeply thoughtful one as Allen is one of the finest post bop tenor's performing. As a collection, November is a compelling listening experience from beginning to end. Do you miss Nefertiti (Columbia/Legacy, 1967)? Not any more. 

~ C.Michael Bailey http://www.allaboutjazz.com/november-jeremy-pelt-maxjazz-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php

Personnel: Jeremy Pelt: trumpet; JD Allen: tenor saxophone; Danny Grissett: piano; Dwayne Burno: bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums.

November

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JD Allen - Grace

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:17
Size: 130,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:15)  1. Mass
(5:03)  2. Lode Star
(5:49)  3. Chagall
(5:40)  4. Luke Sky Walker
(5:07)  5. Grace
(3:06)  6. Detroit
(6:11)  7. Cross Damon
(3:36)  8. Pole Star
(5:23)  9. Papillon 1973
(5:59) 10. Selah (My Refuge)
(5:03) 11. The Little Dipper

Tenor saxophonist JD Allen sounds different on Grace-less muscular, more introspective. But while he’s not as aggressive as he has been over his last several albums, he’s playing with just as much confidence. After four records in a sax-bass-drums trio, he’s added a pianist-Eldar Djangirov, no less-to the group. And he’s playing a bit longer. Whereas he kept most of his performances under four minutes on his previous albums, on Grace he lets the band go for five-plus on most tracks. This doesn’t mean he’s abandoned his theory of jazz economy. Less is still more with Allen. He’ll play two notes where other musicians would play four, and he sits out plenty in order to listen to Djangirov ruminate. But Allen has got something more than songs on his mind with Grace, and it’s spelled out in David Michael Greenberg’s meticulous liner notes: This project tells a story, in two acts, a narrative built around the human journey. But being aware of it is not essential to enjoying the music. And the music is transcendent. Themes are implied more than stated. Structure is loose. Musicians have free rein to take liberties and go where their solos take them. Songs like “Detroit” and “Luke Sky Walker” are pleasant without conforming to traditional notions of melody. On “Pole Star,” it’s not immediately clear what Allen is doing: Is that a solo right off the bat, with no theme? Is that all? Is that the bassline, or is Dezron Douglas soloing too? Here comes Jonathan Barber’s drum solo-no, wait, the song’s over. Allen just gets going on “Papillon 1973” with a beguiling solo that begins to build tension when suddenly he stops and lets Djangirov take over. The ballad “Selah (My Refuge),” on the other hand, does have an easily discernible theme, and it invites sax-and-piano exchanges that might be the most beautiful dialogue you’ll hear all year. Song after song, Allen keeps us guessing and on our toes. One thing we do know: His deceptively complex music keeps getting more and more interesting. ~ Steve Greenlee https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/jd-allen-grace/

Personnel:  Acoustic Bass – Dezron Douglas; Drums – Jonathan Barber; Piano – Eldar Djangirov; Tenor Saxophone – J.D. Allen

Grace

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JD Allen - Bloom

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:30
Size: 93,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:23)  1. Jack's Glass
(6:04)  2. Bloom
(3:13)  3. The Secret Life of Guest Worke
(3:59)  4. The Dreamer
(3:46)  5. A Throng of Millions Can Be On
(4:11)  6. If You Could See Me Now
(3:24)  7. Stardust
(4:52)  8. The Rule of Thirds
(3:16)  9. Pater Noster
(4:18) 10. Car - Car (The Blues)

JD Allen writes in his album notes that “Technically Bloom draws from three sources, 20th-century classical music, the American songbook and jazz improvisation.” But two of Allen’s tenor sax predecessors-John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins-are much in evidence as well. Allen has a big tone that at different times calls to mind each of them (listeners could make a game of deciding when Allen sounds more like one or the other), and his music, like theirs, couples intellect and spirituality without abandoning its earthy roots. Following several well-regarded trio albums, Allen switches to a quartet here, with Orrin Evans, Alexander Claffy and Jonathan Barber joining him on piano, bass and drums, respectively. Allen’s seven compositions on the disc include the title track; the Trane-ish opener, “Jack’s Glass”; the Barber-showcasing “The Secret Life of Guest Workers,” on which a slow, Ornette Coleman-like line leads into and out of an extensive drum solo; “A Throng of Millions Can Be One” and “The Rule of Thirds,” similar tunes differentiated most obviously by Claffy’s bowed solo in the latter; and the closing blues “Car-Car (The Blues),” which Evans opens with one of his better solos. As intriguing and rich as all that is, it’s the three interpretations that stand out. On the first two Allen sounds more Rollins-like. “If You Could See Me Now” shows his willingness to play slow and make his notes count. He takes cues from Rollins in playing “Stardust” unaccompanied, his tone taking on some of the edginess Rollins himself borrowed from Coleman Hawkins. “Pater Noster” (the Lord’s Prayer), from its reverential opening of rumbling piano chords onward, can’t help but call to mind Coltrane’s most famous work. The spirit of serious jazz tenor saxophone endures in JD Allen. ~ Bill Beuttler https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/jd-allen-bloom/

Personnel:  Orrin Evans - piano;  J.D. Allen - tenor saxophone;  Jonathan Barber - drums.

Bloom

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JD Allen - Love Stone

Size: 104,7 MB

Time: 44:54

File: MP3 @ 320K/s

Released: 2018

Styles: Jazz

Art: Front

01. Stranger In Paradise (6:06)

02. Until The Real Thing Comes Along (5:05)

03. Why Was I Born (5:26)

04. You're My Thrill (5:07)

05. Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies (4:35)

06. Put On A Happy Face (4:58)

07. Prisoner Of Love (4:39)

08. Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You) (3:59)

09. Gone With The Wind (4:55)

Personnel:
JD Allen: tenor saxophone
Liberty Ellman: guitar
Gregg August: bass
Rudy Royston: drums

Tenor saxophonist JD Allen's output on Savant Records has been steady since his 2012 album The Matador and the Bull, and this beautiful and intensely interesting ballads album is an assured milestone in his career to date. There are patented JD-isms: that almost operatic-like swoon and smear of tone; deconstructed themes full of non-linearity and melodic asides arriving unforeseen. As in all of Allen's recordings, there is also a spare Chopin-like quality, with a shadowy, crepuscular character to much of the material. An album made up entirely of ballads requires a first-rate harmonic foundation and guitarist Liberty Ellman once again proves himself to be the most sensitive of accompanists, alternating between full harmonic richness and skittering, almost pointillistic lines which merely hint at the harmonies. The depth of Allen's timbre and phrasing is such that the absence of a keyboard is not really felt, and his quartet proves again that it is one of the most highly accomplished small groups in contemporary jazz.

Love Stone  

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