Together with Americana: Musings on Jazz and Blues, and Barracoon, two of JD Allen's previous Savant releases, Americana, Vol. 2 forms a trilogy of sorts, exploring and encapsulating a universal spirit based in roots and reflection. But despite the profound political, racial, financial and historic issues examined by Allen and company, at the central musical core of all three recordings is the underestimated but crucial role the blues has played in the history of jazz and how it continues to evolve and influence the art form today. On Americana, Vol. 2 Allen continues this investigation with his long-time colleagues Gregg August and Rudy Royston, but is now joined by guitarist Charlie Hunter, who shares not only Allen's interest in the blues and it's legacy, but they also share many similar life experiences. As Allen himself says, "(Charlie's) music brings light to me as a listener. When we met, we found out that we grew up in different areas of the country, but our experiences happen to be very similar. That's Americana right there. I wanted that on this record." Here the blues not only provides a welcome outlet for tension and gentle melodicism but it also gives us an unflinching look into deep-seated and long-lived injustices, particularly via the almost expressionistic utterances of three trio-only tracks. Once again JD Allen shows himself to be a player and composer as remarkable for his directness of communication as he is for the sometimes unforgiving sternness of his message.

In JD Allen's liner notes for Queen City, it becomes clear that he spent a great deal of time thinking about how the pandemic has impacted his relationship with music and specifically his saxophone.  In the notes Allen writes, "Performing music for and with people is what I do and I've come to the realization that an audience of listeners of any size is a part of the music; it's also a shared experience. Covid-19 changed that and forced me to try to remember why I started playing in the first place, the years before I started performing and recording."  The tenor saxophonist's response to his period of introspection is this current recording, a solo saxophone program.  It is a recording full of stark, uncompromising power, affording some rare insight into the psyche of the performer.  This is not a Coleman Hawkins' "Picasso"-toned, I-love-my-horn-and-my-horn-loves-me type of symbiosis.  There is a real sense of confrontation between Allen and his horn and, by extension, the audience which makes for a unique listening experience.  This is not to imply that Queen City is some severe piece of avant garde abrasiveness.  Rather, it encompasses an extraordinarily wide-range of musical languages which communicates an equally broad spectrum of emotions.  Melodies   of ravishing beauty alternate with angular, aggressive phrases to express frustration, anger, resolve, hope, love and acceptance in what may become one of the most personal and revealing recordings to come out of the trying time of Covid-19.

DOG STAR

RADIO FLYER

There's an old saying that a great jazz musician never plays a song the same way once. That could certainly be said of Jerry Bergonzi. He is an intellectual artist of uncompromising integrity and a bold, original composer. On Jerry's new Savant recording he returns to the organ-tenor trio format after a long hiatus from it. From the opening track, Cy Coleman's "Witchcraft" with it's hypnotic organ vamp and "bewitching" chord substitutions Jerry gives to the first 8 bars, you know this isn't going to be your parents' organ-tenor gig. Bergonzi and his discmates, Renato Chicco on organ and Andrea Michelutti on drums, take these standards down new harmonic paths and use them as a launching pad for fertile and impressive improvisation. The playing is always intense and distinctive, fresh and spontaneous.

When I go into the studio with these guys, it's not like I feel pressure. It's like, oh boy, let's go have some fun, ays saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, recalling how his previous Savant recordings came together. In short, the acclaimed veteran didn't want the fun to end. So now here we have another terrific recording to complement the reedman's impressive Savant discography and another chance to delight in the exceptionally responsive company he keeps. Revelling in the company of long-time partners bassist Dave Santoro and drummer Andrea Michelutti, Jerry also brings Pasadena-born pianist Bruce Barth into the studio. Jerry doesn't often record with a pianist a€" when one cuts their musical teeth with a pianist like Dave Brubeck the titan's shadow must loom large over the keyboard but he and Bruce have become muy simpatico over the years and their interplay here is remarkable indeed. With Jerry's imaginative compositions and his intense approach to music-making, this is jazz that cuts you no quarter. The whole session swings, communicates and challenges as only Jerry Bergonzi can.

Tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen was born in Detroit, MI, on December 11, 1972. He is a member of the third wave of Young Lion mainstream jazz players. As a young man, he was influenced by the great musicians who stayed in Detroit, but upon his arrival in New York City his real apprenticeship began, as he worked with such notables as George Cables, Betty Carter, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Frank Foster's Loud Minority big band, Butch Morris, David Murray, and Wallace Roney.

Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) - solo piano.

Vinyl LP pressing of this 2020 release.

HEARTS REFLECTION

Vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. Alice Coltrane's devotion to spirituality was the central purpose of the final four decades of her life, an often-overlooked awakening that largely took shape during her four-year marriage to John Coltrane and after his 1967 death. By 1983, Alice had established the 48-acre Sai Anantam Ashram outside of Los Angeles. She quietly began recording music from the ashram, releasing it within her spiritual community in the form of private press cassette tapes. Luaka Bop is pleased to present the first-ever compilation of recordings from this period, making these songs available to the wider public for the first time. Entitled World Spirituality Classics, Volume 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the release is the first installment in a planned series of spiritual music from around the globe; curated, compiled and distributed by Luaka Bop.

WISDOM IN TIME

DOUBLE TROUBLE TWO

HARMOS

PORTRAITS

ODE

ITHACA

INSCAPE: TABLEAUX

STUDIO LIVE BIRDS BLADES

ZURICH CONCERTS

PORTRAIT

DOUBLE TROUBLE

STRINGER; STUDY

3 PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA

Classical Music

Of JD Allen, Giovanni Russonello in The New York Times said, "Mr. Allen has become one of today's most exciting tenor saxophonists not by trying to spotlight his own virtuosity... but by defining a new way of playing in a group." Allen's current release, "Toys / Die Dreaming," is his 14th as a leader and builds on his already rich recorded legacy. His compositions exhibit his philosophy of providing short melodies as the basis of both solo and group improvisation; "Get in and get out," as Allen likes to say. This gives his music a remarkable ever-transforming feel, as if the improvisation was actually part of the composition itself. To bring his music to life, Allen requires players of the utmost talent and creativity and he has certainly found them in bassist, Ian Kenselaar and drummer, Nic Cacioppo. "I found the bad boys of this generation, as far as I'm concerned," says Allen, "guys who are not afraid to dip their toe in the avant-garde a little bit, and then turn around and play the tradition." But tradition to Allen is a development, an unending arc of creativity which begins at the dawn of jazz and to which he is the latest contributor to the music's evolution.

2019 release from the jazz tenor saxophonist. "I've been fortunate to have performed with so many wonderful musicians in the past but I live in the present and it hasn't stopped. I certainly enjoy what I'm doing these days." The consistently intriguing Seven Rays is yet another accomplishment in Jerry Bergonzi's productive and significant career. It finds the great the saxophonist reveling in jagged, tightly coiled phrases and steeped in remote harmonic progressions. His angular riffs, unexpected silences and big, barreling low pitches continue to underline how personal Bergonzi's approach to jazz is. Yet the charismatic nature of his delivery and the steely brilliance of his tone proves so compelling that his art speaks eloquently to both the esoteric theoreticians and the most casual of listeners.

A fount of harmonic ingenuity, melodic integrity, and rhythmic authority, Jerry Bergonzi has long been a standard-bearer of sorts for the jazz community. A prolific composer prone to taking deep dives that put serious theory into profound practice, his discography is filled with smart and imaginative originals that twist and turn in unexpected fashion. But a passion for standard gems of yesteryear, the lingua franca of jazz, also fires his creative impulses and figures into his work. In fact, the tried-and-true classics serve as a source of limitless potential for his horn. This follow-up to his Spotlight on Standards session once again features Bergonzi's slightly off-center take on the tenor-organ-drums trio format while the songs on this set list function as both reminders about Bergonzi's eminence in the jazz world and love letters from the man to the music. "I just adore the melodies of these tunes. I love standards. People always tell me, 'Man, you've got to make more records like this,'" Bergonzi says, "and I'm happy to oblige. I'm just delighted that Savant is totally behind me and this music."

2023 release. This live solo album features the pianist and composer's interpretations of nine songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one by George Harrison. Although other Beatles songs have long been staples of Mehldau's solo and trio shows, he had not previously recorded any of the tunes on Your Mother Should Know. The album ends with a David Bowie classic that draws a connection between The Beatles and pop songwriters who followed. Your Mother Should Know was recorded in September 2020 at Philharmonie de Paris.

BALANCE