ADVENTUROUS MONK

SLAMMIN & JAMMIN

I LOVE MUSIC

Jim Snidero has developed a truly unique voice on the alto sax building on the foundation of the past while pointing the way to the future. With compositions that exploit the full potential of the alto saxophone's expressive range, Snidero has gathered side artists who all seem to be joined at the hip, with each providing sensitive support for the other, shadowing or provoking every move. This is challenging, thoughtful jazz which draws you in rather than alienates and which reveals no weaknesses in an unforgiving, nowhere-to-hide lineup.

FIVELIVE

Curtis Fuller is a clearly one of the trombone's most distinctive voices and a consistently creative force in jazz for over forty years. His latest effort KEEP IT SIMPLE is a must hear for jazz fans!

ZOCALO

Beginning his career with Latin music greats such as Xavier Cugat and Monguito Conjunto, Ray has played with such wildly diverse personalities as Eartha Kitt, Freddie Hubbard, Larry Coryell, Morgana King, Gato Barbieri, Cedar Walton, Michael Urbaniak, Kenny Burrell, Shirley Scott and countless others. Together with Max Roach, he was a founding member of the popular percussion ensemble M'Boom. Here is a lesson in Latin music from the man who perhaps knows it best, having helped define it's evolution during the course of his remarkable career, Ray Mantilla.

GRACE

WITCHCRAFT

Anybody who has ever heard vocalist Barbara Morrison command a stage knows that she possesses an effervescent singing style that drips with soul and a ribald sense of humor. The singer spent her early career working with the blues legend Eddie "Clean head" Vinson who gave the young singer a secure grounding in the blues. For her Savant Records debut, Morrison is joined by that most soulful of tenor players, Houston Person in a program of bluesy standards which could have been a Dinah Washington set list. Savant is proud to welcome Barbara Morrison's spirited vocals to their roster.

For his Savant Records' debut, tenor saxman JD Allen went back in the studio with colleagues Gregg August and Rudy Royston, both of whom have been his regular partners on the bandstand and in the studio since 2008. They go about their business with a robust and focused melodic articulation propelled by great rhythmic drive. You will not find this trio beating a dead horse into submission. The original tracks are short, they get in, make a statement, essay some variations, and get out-short and sweet and intense. An interesting, exciting and thought-provoking release from JD Allen and company.

Not only did Ahmad Jamal call Eric Reed "one of my very favorite pianists," not only has he worked with such talents as Wynton Marsalis, Jessye Norman, Patti Labelle, Quincy Jones and others but he has composed film scores for Eddie Murphy and Tim Story and serves as musical director for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Somehow he still finds time to teach, perform and cut his latest disc, THE DANCING MONK. Here the genius of Monk is refracted through the prism of Eric's own.

Papa' John DeFrancesco put aside his successful playing career to watch over his progeny, Joey DeFrancesco, who by age 17 would start touring as a member of Miles Davis' band. But by the mid-'90s, with Joey grown and on his own, not only did Papa resume his nights behind the B3, he started recording again. Papa has made another trip to the Savant studio, not only with Joey, but with his guitar-playing scion, John, to boot. Together with tenor saxman Joe Fortunato and drummer Glenn Ferracone, they take an un-hackneyed program of nine tunes and add another notch in the belt of this B-3 icon.

MAGNET

Every new recording by tenor saxophonist JD Allen serves to solidify his reputation as one of the finest, most adventurous young musicians playing today. With a gently swinging, very personal vibrato he weaves his way into territory that he has charted for himself. With pianist Orrin Evans, JD takes US on a intensely personal journey through an ever-changing landscape of jazz as he sees it with playing that earned Allen a blaze of critical attention signaling his ascension to the upper ranks of the contemporary jazz world.

From her days singing with the Count Basie band as a replacement for Joe Williams, to her Indian summer of renewed popularity, Irene Reid always lived up to her moniker, the Queen of Uptown Blues. Like Dinah Washington & Esther Phillips, Irene had a church background and never lost that divine intensity or power to convey the emotions in a lyric. Her most notable post-Basie gig was playing the wicked witch on Broadway in "The Whiz." Here is a program featuring Irene, the Charles "Mighty Burner" Earland, Eric Alexander and the rest of the crew doing what Irene did best: The Uptown Blues.

You encounter nothing but sheer musicality when it comes to the Boston saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. But Bergonzi's no-nonsense approach to music cannot mask the fact that he is one of the most remarkable jazz saxophonists on the planet. Here Bergonzi is backed by his usual colleagues, Dave Santoro and Andrea Michelutti plus he is joined by pianist Bruce Barth. Featuring a program mostly of Bergonzi's quirky compositions the musicians work together with a uniformity of intent and vision that perfectly personifies the title, CONVERGENCE.

SHIFTING SANDS

Back in the studio for Savant Records, the versatile pianist with monster chops, Bruce Barth displays those traits which caused the Village Voice to proclaim that he is "one of the best pianists in town, period." His unique, Monk-tinged voicing, big tone and propulsive rhythmic drive sets his sound and style apart from any other pianist. Joined here again by vibist Steve Nelson and with trumpet/flugel phenom Terell Stafford on hand, Bruce offers a stimulating set list of a few standards alongside his always interesting originals.

Bruce Barth, despite his professorship at Temple University, is no stodgy jazz egghead. He is a working musician with an abundance of technique, a seemingly bottomless well of ideas and is a composer of considerable skill with a contemporary and inventive approach, with many of the works here being Barth originals. Barth's solos are witty and insightful while his innate harmonic sense makes him a perfect accompanist when backing solos by others. Joining the front line is the masterful vibes player Steve Nelson, who always swings hard, but also manages to play with a soulful lyricism.

Pianist Eric Reed has claimed that Monk's music makes it possible "to travel way out there, if you're willing to go where it can take you." on the Baddest Monk, Reed and his colleagues prove more than willing. The Monk classics recorded here illustrate the breadth of Reed's thought on one of the most idiosyncratic of jazz composers. Reed and his ensemble are able to penetrate to the very core the Monk's writing, dismantle it's component parts and reassemble them so that they contain not only the essence of Monk, but that of the players themselves.

Here, performing music written by and associated with Miles Davis, vocalist Giacomo Gates proves, as he did with his historic Gil Scott-Heron recording, that great music is not bound to the instrument on which it was created. Though there are notable contributions from pianist John Di Martino, laying down some tasty changes, and Freddie Hendrix sounding quite Miles-like in his muted utterances this disc is all about Giacomo Gates joyously creating music both carefully rehearsed and on the spot while all the time spreading that joy to his audience.

MAGICIAN

MOVIN ON