These are two of the greatest sidemen in American jazz: two guitarists representing two generations. In the summer of '74 they were together in New York for a swing and blues session set up by Hugues and Louis Panassi�. The elder of the two musicians, Al Casey, had been around since the 30's, and had accompanied Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and Billie Holiday. The younger guitarist was Billy Butler, who'd played not only with Bill Doggett and Jimmy Smith, but also Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie or James Brown. The drummer accompanying the pair here is Jackie Williams, whose great class contributes a delicate touch. The freshness of this rare album gives it a sound that reminds you of what a rhythm section's jamming might be like just before the star soloist comes onstage. A smooth, intimate recording that deserves a place in every blues and swing fan's collection. Patrick FR�MEAUX, 2019 "This record is the only one of it's kind. You won't have heard one even remotely like this, not ever... It teems with beautiful music, and the more you hear it, the more you'll love it." (Hugues PANASSI�, 1974)

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)

There is no way around true jazz legend Alain Jean-Marie. A pianist gifted with a rare sensitivity and a sincere virtuosity, he is held in high esteem by jazz fans and jazz musicians alike. Biguine reflections is the works of a lifetime. It was produced by great French-Caribbean producers Arthur Apatout in turn with Erick Siar and stands as a 21-year long adventure (1992 to 2013), issued on five sides and gathered here in a complete, 4-disc set for the first time. In this tremendous, polyptich work the pianist bridges biguine and jazz, two creole musics which emerged out of the same cultural sphere: The Caribbean Sea. He strived to pursue and update the works of wabap biguine founders Al Lirvat and Robert Mavounzy. In bringing his own reinterpretation to it, Alain Jean-Marie takes Caribbean jazz to new heights. A monument.

The timeless artistry of Billie Holiday is something that every generation gets to discover for themselves. The iconic songs on this collection showcase Holiday's unique ability to infuse every lyric with unparalleled emotion and depth. With her distinctive voice and incomparable phrasing, Holiday remains an enduring performer and a powerful influence on generations of musicians. Great Women Of Song is a testament to Holiday's profound legacy and an essential addition to any music collection.

The unforgettable sound of Sarah Vaughan is captured in this collection of essential recordings. From the swinging hits, "Lullaby Of Birdland" and "It's Crazy", to her best-loved recordings, including "Misty" and "Broken-Hearted Melody", this album highlights Vaughan's impeccable phrasing, emotional depth and remarkable range. Whether backed by a trio or a full orchestra, singing hits of the day or jazz standards, every track serves to remind us why Sarah Vaughan is still known as 'The Divine One'.

This new release contains the Kit-Kat Band’s original LP recordings from 1979, revisited and presented as a new album for a whole new generation to enjoy. The Kit-Cat band was the house band of the Kit-Cat night club in London that first opened its doors in 1924. The 10 piece band was assembled by Britain’s best-known band leader, Jack Hylton, and was directed by Boston saxophonist, Al Starita. Producer Chris Ellis recently rediscovered this album which he produced in 1979. Upon hearing it again, he felt that it was worthy of being represented to a new audience. Ellis kept the original notes by Brian rust, and the cover art was given to Ellis by his friend Margret, Duchess of Argyll.

The paths of Eric Ineke and Tineke Postma crossed several times the recent years. The time was there for an album together. The Charlie Parker centennial was the right moment to make it happen, the man who helped to define the bebop. According to Eric Ineke would never have been an Eric Ineke JazzXpress if it wasn't for Charlie "Bird" Parker. On What Kinda Bird is This? the listener gets known and lesser known material by Charlie Parker, complimented two pieces based on work by Charlie Parker, from the hand of Marius Beets.

J�lia Karosi writes of her new album: "I always wondered whether music belongs to any of the dimensions as theorized in the "standard model" in modern physics. I summarized my subjective answer as the title of this album. I believe that music's apparent lack of dimensions pertains to it's unique ability to lift us humans into a sphere of existence where we become unaware of time and space. I also believe that these timeless experiences are usually tied to specific events in our lives, - often catching us unawares of their significance - the very moments that make our lives worth living for. I considered some unforgettable moments in my own life with the programmatic titles in my original compositions in this album. Rebirth reflects on the birth of my son followed by Insomnia (obviously), Words and Beyond is a conflict between verbal and non-verbal forms of expression. Madeleine Moment is a musical quote of Marcel Proust's poetic description of involuntary memory in his In Search of Lost Time. In this album I wish to pay a "jazz tribute" to two of the greatest Hungarian composers of the twentieth century, B�la Bart�k and Zolt�n Kod�ly with arrangements and jazz transcriptions of their works. I hope they wouldn't mind!"

Bob James-Grammy Award-winning Jazz keyboardist, arranger, record producer, record executive, and founding member of Fourplay, returns with a new album, Espresso, his first solo-led project in 12 years. Album tunes, penned by James, reflect the same inventiveness and musical fluency that persuaded Quincy Joines to become his mentor and champion back in 1963. His expressiveness through both writing and performance permeates the rocking minor-key blues of "Bulgogi," the definitive cool jazz of "Topside," the funk strut of "Submarine," the whispered beauty of "Promenade," the turbulent, more complex yet supremely listenable "Mojito Ride" and every other moment on Espresso. The Bob James Trio is complete with drummer Billy Kilson and bassist Michael Palazzolo. This MQA (Master Quality Authentication) CD plays back on all CD players. When a conventional CD player is connected to an MQA-enabled device, the CD will reveal the original master quality. MQA is an award-winning technology that delivers the sound of the studio. MQA presents music at the original studio performance quality, giving the listener the incredible experience of being right there in the studio.

Gulda's “Symphony in G“, presented on this album, was discovered in the SWR archive in the course of research for the release of all the recordings the Austrian pianist made for the German Southwest Broadcasting Corporation (SWR). Until now nobody actually knew that this work existed for there are no indications of Gulda being commissioned or of a specific occasion for which he might have composed this symphony. Therefore, one listens here to the world première of a piece which – apart from being recorded in the studio on 20 November 1970 – has never been performed in public. At the beginning of the 1970s Gulda gave concerts that exclusively featured his own compositions. This also applies to his performance at the Heidelberger Jazztage in 1971, released here for the first time digitally and on album. Almost all of Gulda's jazz works, though often based on classical forms, cannot be played without knowledge of improvisation so as to “keep them away from bunglers” (as the pianist himself put it). One of Gulda’s few compositions without improvisation to be heard here is No. IV from the ten-part piano cycle “Play Piano Play”. “Prelude and Fugue" was probably Gulda’s favourite work and was the last piece of Gulda’s performance in Heidelberg. An exception on this album is Fritz Pauer's "Etude.” In 1966 Fritz Pauer won a prize in the jazz competition Gulda had initiated and so Gulda decided to include this work in the Heidelberg concert from 1971.

SOLO

Zbigniew Seifert (1946-1979) had studied violin in his hometown of Krakow, was converted to woodwinds on the way to jazz, only then to devote himself again increasingly to the strings in the late sixties. The big three of Coltrane, Coleman and Ayler had blazed a path along which legions of saxophone epigones trudged. But hardly any violinists dared this uncompromisingly energetic form of expression and possessed the playing skills to pull it off. Seifert was therefore a pioneer, unintentionally so, because he was not interested in revolutionizing his instrument. He wanted rather to discover the secrets of the heroes of his time and understand, for example, how Coltrane managed to convey impressions of texture without having to forego linear melodies. It helped that he knew how a saxophone behaves musically. With this attitude he was ahead of his contemporaries, who were still working their way through structure and aesthetics. That was probably one of the reasons, in combination with his early death from cancer, that Seifert was forgotten for so long by the jazz world. The recordings in the SWR archive are therefore all the more exciting. Angel Wings is from 1973, a stimulating time for Seifert, when he left Poland and settled in West Germany. The sextet at the New Jazz Meeting in Baden-Baden gave him room to prove himself in the fusion context, with a touch of Mahavishnu in the aura, but above all a document of exuberant jazz-rock power. The duo recordings that were made three years later in Donaueschingen are real gems. There Seifert had in Albert Mangelsdorff a partner who understood him. Like Seifert, the trombonist Mangelsdorff had fought battles to liberate his instrument from the brass section and, by simultaneously overblowing and singing, had fetched it into polyphony.

SUITE ELEGIAQUE

We must not complain, we must fight'', is motto Louis Sclavis repeats almost like a mantra. The 64 year-old from Lyon likes the process this triggers. The son of a photographer, whose own photographs have been shown in exhibitions and adorn the covers of is newer studio aubms, began playing the clarinet at ten. His inspiration back then was the music of Sidney Bechet, France's biggest Jazz star at the time. From there he went on to the conservatory, where at sixteen he saw a concert by the Workshop d'Lyon and immediately began playing their sophisticated style of Free Jazz. ''You could say that I experienced a very fast transition from new Orleans Jazz and the music of Duke Ellington, which I also liked back then and still like a lot, to Free Jazz'', he laughingly admits. ''I only found out later what happened in Jazz musically inbetween.'' True to his fighting spirit, Sclavis soon engaged himself in the French - and European - Jazz scene with a vigor to match his extraordinary talent, winning the Prix Django Reinhardt in 1988 already and recording many ground breaking albums, such as ''Carnet des Routes'', inspired by a tour of Western and central Africa with Henri Texier and Aldo Romano. The concert documented on this album opened the WDR 3 Jazzfest at the Theater Gutersloh on February 2, 2017, which also happened to be Louis Sclavis' 64th birthday. As a present to himself and to his audience, he presented a new quartet that evening, with Sylvain Riffet, who more than stepped up to the plate as the second reed-voice on saxophone, the excellent Christophe Lavergne on drums and Sarah Murcia on bass. Sclavis adores this eclectic group and explains that especially Sarah Murica, best known in France for accompanying chansonnier George Moustaki or writing the score to a successful movie about Serge Gainsbourg, brings a different flair and freshness to the music. ''I like drummers and bassplayers, but they just did not appear on any of my last albums'', he says. ''So I was very happy to be playing with a real ''Jazz rhythm section'' again in Gutersloh.''

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.

Despite an obvious rapport, singer Elisabeth Kontomanou and pianist Geri Allen were not old friends when they met in France to lay down these tracks Kontomanou is based in Stockholm, while Allen is still in the states, a centerpiece of the University of Michigan's jazz faculty. The two met for the first time for a duet tribute to Billie Holiday in March 2011, at Montreal's annual Jazz en Rafale Festival. Geri Allen has long been considered the greatest jazz pianist since the 1980s, her work focused on furthering the legacy of Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk while retaining the gospel fervor of the blues. This program mixes traditional with new undertaking full-scale reimagining of iconic R&B themes like the opener, Marvin Gaye's God Is Love, and Curtis Mayfield's time-honored classic People Get Ready.

Classical Music

Patchwork of Time

Award winning Austrian drummer Bernd Reiter has already, in spite of his young age, played with jazz’s luminaries like Charles Davis, Kirk Lightsey, Mundell Lowe, Steve Grossman, to mention a few. Reiter formed the quintet presented here in 2015 to perform a tribute program of Hank Mobley’s music featuring American tenorsax Eric Alexander whom he started to work with in 2012. The band’s extensive European tour produced this live album from the last two concerts from the Bird’s Eye in Basil, Switzerland. One of the reviews of the live performances simply put it “Jazz at its best!”.

Israeli-born guitarist Rotem Sivan, who is a strong new voice on the NY jazz scene, makes his CD debut on SteepleChase Lookout. Rotem is a recipient of Montreux Jazz Festival International Competition prize in 2009. While completing his studies at Tel Aviv University and NYC’s New School University Rotem has already been a much sought-after young player in the international festivals and concerts circuit.

Dinah Washington - As Duke Ellington would have said, Dinah Washington was "beyond category." Subtle and inventive enough to hold an honored place in the jazz pantheon yet tough and forceful enough to command the attention of blues, R&B and rock n' roll audiences.

With this sequel volume to SCCD 31855 SteepleChase is proud to make the first live recordings from Wally’s commercially available. Boston’s historical (it celebrated its70th anniversary last year) live spot is where Jason Palmer and his working band have been performing weekly for the past 12 years. Wally’s is, to quote Fred Bouchard of Downbeat, “…is the world’s oldest black owned continuously operation jazz club. Founded in 1947 by Joseph L. Walcott. Wally’s Café Jazz Club is located in Boston’s historic Jazz Corner…. Barbados-born Walcott built Wally’s as an oasis where the black community could socialize and listen to bands….”

Listening, eight years after it was created, to this primary chapter in the recorded legacy of Myra Melford's first trio evokes a rush of feelings. There are warm memories of in-person encounters with Melford, Lindsey Horner and Reggie Nicholson; and satisfaction regarding how the ideas Melford articulated here as both pianist and composer have metamorphosed into the triumphs of her subsequent music. What is absent is the uncertainty one often feels when contemplating the recent past, that feeling of needing more time to take the full measure of a musical statement. Melford has made it easy for us, through the clarity of both these now-historic performances and her subsequent efforts, to hear the present works as both glorious ends in themselves and the foundations of her ongoing creations. Melford formed the trio in 1990, and immediately began the touring and recording that made her and it among the most positive signs of musical health in the early 1990s. What set the trio immediately apart was its ability to merge a strong blues feeling with notions of rhythmic and structural complexity associated with the exploratory end of the jazz-trio spectrum. The music conveyed a strength and unguarded emotionalism that burst forth in dynamic arcs, with a sense of shape and completeness that made the trio’s collective creations anything but random. Even as the band broke new ground, it was clearly a product of the jazz tradition. However odd the meter or angular the thematic material, the music always had a propulsion that all sides of current debates on jazz aesthetics could identify and celebrate as swing.

Wally’s, Boston’s historical (est. 1947) live jazz spot, is where the award-winning trumpeter/composer Jason Palmer started to hone his chops some 20 years ago while a student at New England Conservatory. Jason and his Boston-based quintet has been performing there every weekend to the loyal and enthusiastic crowd since 2006. This CD is the first of two documentary live recordings from those electrifying nights in 2016. “Over the past decade, trumpeter Jason Palmer has proven to be one of the most compelling artists of his generation. With each new volume in a series of CDs for SteepleChase, Palmer reveals a different aspect to his musical mind while the expressiveness of his horn continues to expand as well.” (Ken Dryden – the NYC Jazz Record on SCCD 31820 Beauty ‘n’ Numbers)

The first album of Natalie Dessay for Sony Classical is a journey through music (Great American Song Book, Broadway & Jazz) and art (Edward Hopper) - This is not a classical album. "I was delighted to once again work with Claire Gibault, who now leads her own chamber orchestra, the Paris Mozart Orchestra, more than twenty years after she first accompanied my Mozart performance at the start of my career as a classical singer. It all started with a couple of Edward Hopper paintings that inspired the beautiful stories of poet Claude Esteban, which Graciane Finzi in turn illustrated with her delicate and inventive music. Claire asked me to tell the story of these "melologues". For my part, I selected ten other paintings that inspired me to choose a range of songs from what's known as the "Great American Songbook".

I asked five incredible musicians to arrange them for the Paris Mozart Orchestra, thereby building a bridge between classical music, jazz, and musicals. I then worked to develop a new voice—a deeper and more intimate sound that would whisper into the listener's ear. It was a voice I had to learn to control, like a small, secretive wild animal. I wanted to open things up with "On A Clear Day", which serves as an introduction, and a promise. Next comes a self-deprecating and low-pitched version of "I Feel Pretty" in quintuple time that leads naturally into "I Am A Fool To Want You", a song about someone who is ready to do anything and everything to win over a lost love. "Send In The Clowns" marks the disenchantment of people whose paths cross, but never at the right time. Hope lies just beyond the next bend in the road with "Detour Ahead" followed by "Something's Coming…Maybe Tonight". Next is "Autour de minuit" based on the beautiful poem by Claude Nougaro, which rings with the promise of a brighter tomorrow and of luck that might finally go our way. But the memory of our beloved refuses to fade, and every night we find ourselves back at the counter of a café that echoes with happy memories with "I Keep Going Back To Joe's", except that now it's just us at the bar as we listen to "In My Solitude". It's times like these that make us want to settle down with "A Place You Want To Call Home", but in the end, as "The Two Lonely People" asks, won't we always wind up alone even when we think we have a special someone? What do we have left, then, if not show business? As "There's No Business Like Show Business" tells us, isn't the world just a stage filled? Enjoy your journey through music and paintings with these "Pictures of America"."

-----

REVIEW:

Dessay sounds in great form and uses every trick in the book. She takes aspects of a Streisand-inspired technique. Taking the cover off the voice mid-note and opening the tone right out to its full; or whittling it down to a sexy, Julie London whisper.

– Opera Now