This release is the second in a series of three albums presenting Jazzpar winners, a prestigious Danish jazz award. Roy Haynes is a living legend and is considered one of the most influential drummers in jazz ever. He has played with Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and Michel Petrucciani. Just about all of the greatest in jazz. Roy Haynes is known for his very personal style, as a drummer and in fashion being both elegant and cutting edge in everything he does. A true master and artist in his own right. This all-star group featuring Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen plays both beautiful ballads and jazz in honor of Roy Haynes great achievements as drummer, bandleader and African American jazz icon.

William Thomas Dupree was born in 1909 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African-American, part Cherokee. His parents ran a grocery store in the Irish Channel neighborhood and the family lived upstairs. When he was about one year old, the house was set on fire by the Ku Klux Klan and both his parents were killed. He grew up in the Colored Waifs Home in New Orleans where he received no schooling, but learned about music, cooking and fighting. When he came out of the orphans home, he learned to play barrelhouse piano, especially from a pianist called Willie Drive 'Em Down Hall. He made his living playing piano and fighting in the street for bets. He returned to Chicago in 1939 and joined a circle of recording artists including Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, who introduced him to record producer Lester Melrose. After WWII he moved to New York, where he made multiple recordings for many labels, including his legendary 1958 album for Atlantic Records, Blues from the Gutter.

In Duke Ellington’s tape collection (”The Stockpile”) were several tapes with concert recordings of the band’s performances on tour. One can only guess whether these tapes were required by Duke for some purpose, or were given to him (or his son Mercer) on the initiative of the concert arrangers. At any rate it was a great delight to find a tape box marked ”Ellington – Uppsala 9-11-71” in the collection, containing a tape with a concert at the university town of Uppsala, Sweden on Nov. 9th 1971, the second of two concerts in this very old and very beautiful town founded in the 13th century.

The concert in Uppsala, the second on this Tuesday evening, started with the C-Jam Blues as was usual at that time. The tune had sort of replaced Take The A Train as the band’s signature. Norris Turney is heard on the clarinet over the band at the beginning, and Cootie Williams, Paul Gonsalves, Booty Wood, and Russell Procope follow. The centerpiece of the concert was the band’s performance of A Tone Parallel to Harlem or HARLEM as it was also called.

To end the evening properly and bring the audience in a more relaxed mood before leaving the concert hall, Ellington chose to finish the concert alone at the piano, just accompanied by Joe Benjamin on the bass, playing his own arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s lovely tune Lotus Blossom. As evident from the performance at the Uppsala concert, the band could live up to the challenges, and it was received everywhere with enthusiasm and – love.

REVIEW:

This album, recorded at a concert in the great hall of Uppsala University on November 9, 1971, was found in what Ellington called "The Stockpile," his private tape collection. 

It starts with "C-Jam Blues" which at the time had largely replaced "Take the A-Train" as the band's opening number. One of the more interesting numbers is the little known "Fife," written as a vehicle for Norris Turney on flute and there is also a version "A Tone Parallel to Harlem," the title of which Ellington simply abbreviated to "Harlem." 

"Chinoiserie" is another rarity, the title referring to an artistic passion for things Oriental, which in his erudite introduction Duke links to a statement by the Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan. 

At the other end of the scale, trumpeter Money Johnson comes on like Louis Armstrong for "Hello Dolly." Nell Brookshire lends a hand on vocals, and Ellington shows his age somewhat by referring to her as a "torch singer." 

Those "good old good ones" are there aplenty, with longer versions of "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" and "Satin Doll." Nell Brookshire vies with Money Johnson for slapstick vocal honors on "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good." 

Of course Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A-train" couldn't be omitted altogether. It comes in fourth in this particular race for royalties, before "Fife." And the same composer's "Lotus Blossom" is treated to a fine reflective arrangement by Ellington, accompanied only by bassist Joe Benjamin. Ellington said this was the tune Strayhorn most liked to hear him to play.

-- AllAboutJazz.com (Chris Mosey)

Two years after the revelation "Opening" which was awarded the Django Reinhardt Prize from the Academie du Jazz, Fred Nardin is back with the bass player Or Bareket and the drummer Leon Parker for the Fred Nardin Trio's second album: "Look Ahead. " "You can be both as intellectual and as soulful as you want, and the swing beat is powerful but subtle. I think you have to devote yourself to it exclusively to do it at that level". (Mulgrew Miller, DownBeat Magazine. ) A pianist bred on experience(s) and tradition, Fred Nardin has only one aim in life: to play as well as he can, just as long as it swings. Reasonable but determined, passionate and enthralling when it is a question of tackling the great masters - Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner or Mulgrew Miller -every day Fred Nardin gets a little closer to his objective, and Look Ahead is the resounding proof. Co-founder of The Amazing Keystone Big-Band, chosen sideman for Cecile McLorin Salvant, Bria Skonberg, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Natalia M. King, Stefano Di Battista, Jesse Davis and Gael Horellou, regular feature "After-Hours" at the Duc Des Lombards in Paris: Fred Nardin is everywhere where jazz is happening but it is with the trio of the album "Opening" that he was really discovered in 2017.

When Brooklyn-born, NYC native Kenny Werner came on stage for his concert in Stuttgart in 1992, he had just begun experimenting with the possibilities of solo piano programs. Over time he grew into the role of a high-quality craftsman who drew his strength not from the struggle for innovation, but from the elegance and finesse with which he incorporated the pianistic possibilities of the keyboard tradition into his music. In artistic self-understanding he was one step ahead of his era.

Werner’s advanced position was also evident in the repertoire that he brought with him to the studio room of the SDR (Süddeutscher Rundfunk) in Stuttgart on 10 June 1992. Most of the compositions were standards associated with the “Great American Songbook”, which he took as a starting point for letting his own creativity play on familiar melodies and forms. It didn’t interest Werner to have the material fall apart in the postmodern fashion typical of the time. On the contrary, for him it was about the perfection of an interior design of the songs, which allowed him to savor the freedom within the set frame of classical jazz patterns. The evening in Stuttgart thus becomes a link in the canon of Werner’s style.

Born in Brooklyn, NY on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Kenny Werner began playing and performing at a young age, first recording on television at the age of 11. Although he studied classical piano as a child, he enjoyed playing anything he heard on the radio. In high school and his first years of college he attended the Manhattan School of Music as a classical piano major. His natural instinct for improvisation led Kenny to the Berklee School of Music in 1970. There he sought tutelage of the renowned piano teacher Madame Chaloff. Her gracious wisdom and inspiration became a driving force in Kenny’s conception: A music conscious of its spiritual intent and essence. From Boston, Kenny traveled to Brazil with the saxophonist Victor Assis Brasil. There he met Victor’s twin brother, Brazilian pianist Joao Assis Brasil. He studied with Joao, who provided another piece of the puzzle for Kenny’s conception that would lead to Effortless Mastery, his landmark opus on how to allow the master musician from within to manifest. Kenny Werner has been a world-class pianist and composer for over forty years. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continue to impact audiences around the world.

New Orleans is a musical melting pot that has been cooking up music royalty for nearly over a century. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, now in it's seventeenth year, is dedicated to preserving the tradition of New Orleans music and culture while exploring the works of artists that might be considered slightly outside the realm of jazz.

"Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint" is the fourth studio recording by the Orchestra and the first under new music director Adonis Rose. Toussaint, one of New Orleans' most well-known composers, wrote the classic tunes "Java", "Electricity", "Southern Nights" and "Working In A Coal Mine" which all get fresh large ensemble interpretations on this new disc. Other tunes associated with Toussaint, but not necessarily written by him, such as the classic "Tequila", are also on the playlist. A raucous and swinging tribute to a true American music original performed by his home town ensemble.

REVIEW:

Allen Toussaint (1938-2015), a composer / producer who made his mark in the broad spheres of R&B, rock and roll, funk, country and pop music, may seem at first glance an unusual choice for a big-band jazz tribute. On the other hand, the New Orleans native never strayed far from the pivotal music of his home city, embracing and supporting jazz even as he found other musical worlds to conquer. So when vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater remarked to Adonis Rose, artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, that she’d never heard a big-band treatment of Toussaint’s music, Rose took her comment to heart and decided to make it happen.

The result is the buoyant and earthy Songs, on which NOJO, recording for the first time under Rose’s baton, explores half a dozen songs written by Toussaint, one more associated with him (“Tequila”), and colorful tribute numbers by Gerald French (“Gert Town”) and Leonard Brown (“Zimple Street”). Bridgewater is the orchestra’s guest vocalist on “It’s Raining” and (alongside Philip Manuel) “With You in Mind.” Percussionist French sings on the rhythmic “Gert Town” (named for the neighborhood in which Toussaint grew up), overdubbing himself on vocal and various percussion instruments, accompanied only by Rose on bass drum and NOJO percussionist Alexey Marti on congas. Brown sings and plays trumpet on “Zimple Street,” a bluesy cooker on which he fashions one of the album’s brightest solos (preceding another strong statement by either Khari Allen Lee or Jeronne Ansari on alto sax).

“Tequila,” introduced by The Champs in 1958 and later covered by Toussaint on his album We the People, sounds even better sans voices here, thanks to steadfast blowing by NOJO and crisp solos by (unnamed) tenor sax and trombone. The orchestra does well by Toussaint’s themes too, opening in an old-line New Orleans groove on “Southern Nights” (nice vocal by an unbilled Michael Watson who is at least cited in Rose’s liner notes) before proceeding to the handsome ballad “It’s Raining,” on which Bridgewater is in full seductive mode. Edward Petersen’s impressive arrangement of “Working in the Coal Mine” showcases alto Ansari with male chorus, the funky, second-line “Ruler of My Heart” the orchestra’s splendid resident vocalist, Nayo Jones. The lively, staccato “Java,” which earned trumpeter Al Hirt a Grammy Award in 1964, doesn’t suffer much from his absence, thanks to unflagging work by the ensemble and Ashlin Parker’s nimble trumpet solo.

Even though more or less divorced from his normal realm of influence, Songs is a tribute that Toussaint surely would have loved, as it is New Orleans to the max, astutely designed and adeptly performed by Rose and the rejuvenated New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.

-- AllAboutJazz.com (Jack Bowers)

The first attempt went awry. When Nat and his older brother Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley tried to start a quintet in the mid-fifties, hardly anyone was interested in the newcomers from Florida. And that, in retrospect, was good. Because the trumpeter Nat landed in this way in the bands of Jay Jay Johnson and George Shearing, and there refined, under expert guidance, his art of elegant blues-bopping ensemble playing. The alto saxophonist Cannonball in turn became Miles Davis' counterpart to tenor saxophonist John Coltrane for a good four years, a time he later described as the most artistically important of his life. When the brothers came together again in 1959, they had both matured and were ready to lead one of the most successful jazz bands of the 1960s. Unlike experimental colleagues who tested the limits of music, but more and more lost their audience, the Cannonball Adderley Quintet managed to reach a large audience with hits like "This Here", "Work Song", "Jive Samba" and above all "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy". No wonder, then, that a wave of applause greeted the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in the Liederhalle Stuttgart in 1969. Completed by bassist Victor Gaskin and drummer Roy McCurdy, they had brought with them just the right repertoire.

Saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason writes: Music is the universal language of mankind is a frequently cited quote by the 19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Well, if thats the case, jazz is certainly my favorite dialect. The spontaneity and collaborative nature of jazz makes it ideal for swiftly building bridges between groups of musicians and audiences alike. Nothing is as musically exciting and refreshing as a newly forged relationship of outstanding jazz performers and composers, especially when brought together in the close comfort and proximity of ones living room. This was to be the beginning of what has now developed into a well-brewed and mature unity of musicians that have since then performed at jazz festivals in both Luxembourg and Reykjavik and have now recently recorded this outstanding album, featuring compositions from all four members. The compositions on this album provide a good framework for the musical dialogue. Ranging from melodic ballads such as Flosasons Father of Light and Reis Thank you letter, the folkish melody and melancholy of Demuths Dante and Reis Tundra, to Flosasons more calculated and intellectually infused Counting sheep and Forty-nine, over to Herrs mystic and haunting Moonglow.

Born in 1989, Michel Meis belongs to the new generation of Luxembourgish Jazz musicians and regularly proves his versatility and openness through numerous projects. After years of style shaping and sound experiments, Meis' 4tet is about to make its mark on the European jazz scene with a sonic vocabulary that skillfully blends the traditional palette of drums, trombone, piano and double bass with the fresh approach and the broad musical background of open-minded and fearless musicians. The result is an exciting modern jazz where free and experimental improvisations meet well-crafted compositions. Where a rhythm, bursting with energy and vivacity, meets introverted and lyrical melodies. Where conventional jazz elements meet a clever and subtle use of jungle beats and electronic sound effects. Although a true powerhouse drummer, Michel Meis gives enough room for the other instruments to unfold, thus emphasizing the cohesiveness and harmony of the project.

This album is made up of selected live and radio broadcasts with the Danish Radio Big Band and Swedish, British and Danish/American small groups during 1964-71. As the title indicates only ballads are included on the album, and, for the first time on a Ben Webster ballad album, there is no string-section accompaniment. Three of the ten numbers were previously unreleased before the original issue of this album. The art of ballad-playing was all-important to Ben Webster. He once said "Remember, there are only three tempi in jazz - slow, medium and slow!" While all the tunes are ballads, the wide variety and constellations give a wonderful, multi-faceted sound-picture of Ben Webster.

"Kristin Korb is a jewel of jewels. The bassist and vocalist commands both of her instruments with panache, engaging them simultaneously with an ease comparable to breathing." (Tyran Grillo, All About Jazz) There are few bassists who can sing and there are even fewer who can do it well. Kristin Korb is one of those artists who make you forget that she is playing the bass when you hear her crystalline voice. Inspired by the days when music was romantic and made you want to dance, Kristin and her trio embody that spirit and carry their audiences along for the ride. Love eventually brought the American bassist and vocalist to Denmark in 2011. On her new release, Kristen Korb explores the Holiday season, performing traditional classics as well as twentieth century new classics

Lars Jansson is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator. He was born in 1951, and grew up in Örebro, Sweden, where he was bored by his lessons at the community music school. In his early teens, a relative lent him records with Miles Davis, Ben Webster, and Mose Allison, creating a solid foundation for his musical education. Jansson's career has been in full flourish since 1970, and he has for the main part been focusing on the trio format. Lars Jansson Trio has long been one of the most renowned jazz groups in his native Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia as well. In 1998, he was nominated for the Danish Jazzpar Prize and he became the first jazz professor in Aarhus, Denmark. He was honored in Denmark with a Grammy in 2001 for "Best International Album," with the album Hope. Lars Jansson Trio are now ready to release their new album Just This. Assisted by Thomas Fonnesbæk on bass and Paul Svanberg on drums, Jansson has created a body of work that deals with various themes of life, and pays tribute to some of Jansson's heroes. Fonnesbæk is a well-respected bassist in his own right, playing with the likes of Justin Kauflin and Alex Riel, and Svanberg, who is Jansson's son, is a widely used drummer on the Danish jazz scene. The album, 13 tracks in total, comes by as a beautiful and diverse collection of tunes that display the collective talents of three very gifted and experienced musicians.

Morten Haxholm is ready to release his sixth album. It is an album that once again sees him joining forces with US jazz stars Jonathan Kreisberg (guitar) and Ari Hoenig (trumpet), as he did on his first and second albums Equilibrium and Quintessence of Dust. This time he is also joined by Frederick Menzie (sax) and Nikolaj Hess. Morten Haxholm is an upcoming Danish bass player, but he has already established himself on the Danish and international jazz scene. He graduated in 2013 from the prestigious soloist education at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, and with four albums in his own name and several tours with his own bands in Denmark, he has emerged on the music scene as a new composer and bass player to be reckoned with.

Influenced at a very early age by the music of the Middle East, trained in classical music and jazz, Omri Mor is a young virtuoso pianist with a flourishing style and multiple influences. Spotted very early in his career by Avishaï Cohen (double bass) who was impressed by Omri’s great knowledge of Arab-Andalusian, Chaabi and jazz, the music is sure to shine as this trio performs together on the biggest stages of Europe and the rest of the world in 2018. It is under the artistic direction of drummer / percussionist Karim Ziad that he records this first album "It's About Time!", surrounded by the exceptional line-up of Avishaï Cohen on the double bass, Michel Alibo on the electric bass and Karim Ziad on the drums. The repertoire is composed mainly of originals and displays the great talent of Omri Mor as a composer who also possesses an incredible sense of performance and melody. The piece "Marrakech" (Hamid Zahir) leads the listener to new lands and wild rhythms, giving his piano style a unique combination of swing and freedom.

Vintage Christmas Trio is David Ian’s long-awaited full-length follow up to his debut success Vintage Christmas. His purest release to date, this album features instrumental-only jazz trio interpretations of Christmas favorites using the most minimal elements--highlighting Ian’s craft as pianist and arranger. David Ian’s delightful performances transport you to an era that birthed the most sentimental songs of this season. The opener, “Deck the Halls” welcomes in the Christmas spirit with a swinging trio. David Ian’s signature sound shines throughout the album as he transforms the often stately “Joy to the World” into a jazz/blues injected festivity and then carries the listener into a dreamier state with the ever-loved classic “White Christmas.” The lyrical bass solos of Jon Estes tastefully splash their way on numerous tracks supported by the clever drumwork of Josh Hunt, who together comprise a perfectly ornamental rhythm section. “We Three Kings” takes on a new form with a reflective mood; an unexpected arrangement of a Christmas classic, more forgotten in recent years. In “Silver Bells,” Ian masterfully and fluidly switches back and forth from swing to straight time. The close of the album is a solemn “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” stripped down to just piano and percussion. If you listen closely, your ears might catch the chirps of a winter bird complementing this moving musical performance.

To help artists develop exciting projects that are difficult to realize under existing conditions is the goal of the SWR NEWJazzMeeting. This legendary sound laboratory for jazz of the SWR was founded in 1966 by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and takes place every year. The idea: musicians who always wanted to perform with one another but who, for a variety of reasons, have so far not been able to do so, develop a concert programme in the broadcaster’s studios that the SWR then presents in several concerts in its transmission area. In the course of its fifty-year history, the SWR NEWJazz Meeting has in this way served as a driving force for new trends in jazz. “I see a particular value in exploring the music of my South African homeland and making it fit for the future.” Kyle Shepherd, born in 1987, is the most innovative and important pianist of the contemporary South African jazz scene. His sound boldly makes reference to the roots of township jazz and the Goema Beat of his hometown of Cape Town. Nevertheless, he refuses to be put into a pigeonhole; his horizon extends far beyond his beloved Cape Jazz. “It’s cool to choose the African thing in conceptual questions. But just as cool to choose something else.” Kyle Shepherd, the most innovative and important pianist of the contemporary South African jazz scene, is the curator of the 2016 SWR NEWJazz Meeting. At his wish, four young jazz musicians from South Africa and the Benin-born guitarist and singer Lionel Loueke (who since 2001 has been living in the United States) met in November 2016 at the SWR’s Baden-Baden radio studios. The musicians named their project “Sound Portraits From Contemporary Africa”. The African improvisers experimented for five days and developed a concert programme that they then presented on a tour in the SWR broadcasting area.