Captain Coe’s Famous Racearound showcases the work of saxophonist Tony Coe, the first non-American to receive the jazz world's ultimate accolade - the Jazzpar Prize, occasionally known as the 'Jazz Nobel', which he was awarded in 1995. All tracks on this album were recorded during the JAZZPAR award concerts with both The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bob Brookmeyer and the 1995 Jazzpar Combo. This remastered edition features redesigned artwork by the Danish star graphic artist Finn Nygaard, new liner notes by Brian Priestley and photos by Jan Persson.

Tony Coe wrote a substantial new work for the JAZZPAR award concerts and the complex “Captain Coe’s Famous Racearound”, according to its composer, was completed within a few days “in an atmosphere of white heat. The smallgroup set with the JAZZPAR Combo also includes a Coe composition featuring the excellent solo work of Bob Brookmeyer. “Edmundo” (formerly recorded as “Lagos” on Canterbury Song) was dedicated to the Latin-American bandleader Edmundo Ros, who was the drummer on Fats Waller’s London recordings but remembered by Tony for his “exhilarating and romantic Latin music and his warm personality coming over the air during my [World War II] childhood, when there was much stress and hardship in Britain”. Also heard are two pieces by London- and Paris based drummer Steve Argüelles. The first has Argüelles playing a musical box against which Tony builds a free improvisation, while “Antonia” is a ballad showcasing his warm soprano saxophone tone.

The celebrated New Orleans Jazz Orchestra examines and the profound relationship of its hometown to the nation of France with its release of Petite Fleur on Storyville Records. The second album under the artistic directorship of drummer Adonis Rose features ten songs, nine of them standards associated with French and New Orleans musicians. The tenth tune is an original by Cyrille Aimée, the acclaimed jazz vocalist born and raised in France but now living and working in The Big Easy itself.

Aimée is the NOJO’s collaborator and vocalist on the album. It was the singer who initiated the collaboration, telling Rose that she would like to work with the 18-piece big band and asking if he had any ideas for a project. “I said, ‘Well, okay, musically, how can I tell a story here?’” Rose recalls. “I thought about the long, shared history of those two places, and that became the concept. A narrative about the musical relationship between New Orleans and France.” The title tune, a standard by early jazz clarinet legend Sidney Bechet, epitomizes the concept: A composition by a New Orleans artist living in France, performed by a New Orleans band with a French vocalist. Composers from both sides of the Atlantic, from Michel Legrand to Jelly Roll Morton, get similar treatment. So do various New Orleanian styles, from a stomp (“Get the Bucket”) to a second line (“Down”) to Fats Domino-style rock ’n’ roll (“I Don’t Hurt Anymore”). In addition to being its spotlight vocalist, Aimée is also Petite Fleur’s featured soloist, applying her razor-sharp scat singing to “In the Land of Beginning Again,” “On a Clear Day,” and “Undecided.”

REVIEW:

Petite Fleur is essentially a meditation on the ties that bind Crescent City art to French culture. Teaming up for 10 songs that cross styles and oceans while exploring that particular connection, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and French vocalist Cyrille Aimée make a perfect match, united in the act of storytelling.

The album speaks to Artistic Director and drummer Adonis Rose’s sure-handed helming of the NOJO, the entire band roster’s contributions in part(s) and sum, Aimée’s well-documented gifts, and a shared vision that brings them all together.

-- JazzTimes (Dan Bilawsky)

Bands that are led by drummers are not as seldom as they once were, but still a somewhat rare affair. The quartet of drummer Christian Krischkowskyis already presenting its second album “The End of Melancholism” and illustrates the advantages of such an approach in nine pieces, seven of which are from Krischkowsky's pen. Pieces like “Would You Dance With Me?” or “Football Evolution” sound rhythmically challenging, without deliberately placing the drums in the foreground. “I wanted to incorporate the rhythmic ideas that I developed on drums even more into my compositions,” Krischkowsky said. “When composing, however, I always had my co-musicians with whom I recorded the album in mind.” And they are really something else! Peter Ehwald is a saxophonist who always goes his own way, but at the same time has outstanding qualities in interaction. “Peter is very freedom-loving,” the band leader stated. "He repeatedly makes suggestions to modify fixed structures, which may sound too beautiful, and improvise to make them more his own. This makes the pieces more spirited, more unpredictable and freer. This also reflects his personality. "Marc Schmolling is a pianist with whom Christian Krischkowsky has almost blind understanding. “I've known Marc the longest, and he's actually responsible for the band members coming together,” he confessed. "I appreciate his humor and admire how deeply he is rooted in tradition. At the same time, he also has something unwieldy and unpredictable in his play. Sometimes it sounds a bit cumbersome, but that is also exactly what constitutes his own style. ”Roland Fidezius on bass is responsible for the maneuverability of the quartet. He is closely intertwined with Krischkowsky's playing, but also keeps making surprising twists.

With an original line-up of trombone, electric guitar, double bass and drums, NABOU is a breath of fresh air on the Belgian jazz scene. On the trombone, bandleader and composer Nabou Claerhout is looking for a sound all her own: by means of all sorts of effects, she creates a dreamy musical framework with a strong atmospheric and melancholic resonance. The group’s debut EP Hubert – for which Claerhout was nominated for the Sabam For Culture ‘Jazz Composer 2019’ prize – was already a fine demonstration of its unique sound, which is now further refined and specified on its first full album You Know. Lush and intimate sounds alternate with strongly rhythmically based compositions, while groovy bass riffs from Trui Amerlinck, Mathias Vercammen’s elaborate drum patterns and the modern, virtuoso guitar playing of Roeland Celis play their part in this musical adventure full of highlights – all created in combination with Claerhout’s distinctive trombone playing ‘that sings, cries, pulsates, narrates and knows how to make many hearts weak through well-constructed contemporary pieces’.

Almost three centuries ago, in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) finished writing his Two-Part Inventions, BWV 772-786. Designed for the education of his son Wilhelm Friedemann, these fifteen works explore contrapuntal writing and a variety of different dance styles. Then as now, musicians learned their trade by mastering performance technique and the idiomatic characteristics of their instrument. On this album, pianist Moisés P. Sánchez reinvents this extraordinary set of pieces by employing Bachian principles: reworking on well-known works to translate them into a modern idiom, while retaining their essence. Commissioned by the Fundación Juan March, this project harks back to the original spirit of Bach's Inventions, taking a creative idea and reimagining it in order to stimulate the musical imagination and seduce the listener with new sonorities.

A singer with an exciting presence and a voice to immerse yourself in. A band that lit up with high wattage a repertoire including both standards and popular songs. A band leader who had his ensemble under control through proven discipline and could, when needed, take the lead as a soloist, but tended to hold back amidst his all-stars. The result a mixture that whisked the concert hall in Freiburg (Germany) for one evening in October 1959 into a wonderful world of successful jazz entertainment and sent the audience out into the night with an earworm.

Uri Caine and Stefan Winter met for the first time in New York 30 years ago. A musical adventure begins, there is no goal, but a path. Two outstanding jazz albums are created on JMT, then Caine breaks through the boundaries between jazz, classical and new music like no other artist on Winter & Winter. New, exciting, groundbreaking things are emerging. Caine embodies sound, composition and improvisation merge, Bach and Monk meet as in a completely new duo drama and conduct a dialogue. Caine: “When Stefan Winter asked me to choose music from the past to put on an album, I hesitated. The selection of works is as difficult as if someone asked you which of your children is your favorite child." Caine made a completely surprising choice: worth hearing, enlightening, remarkable!

Only time can tell if a musical composition will be considered a “classical” piece by future audiences, but as Danish music critic Søren Schauser has predicted: “In a couple of years we will see pieces by an Ellington or a Peterson in regular concert programs in entirely classical contexts.” With “The Touch” Søren Kristiansen and Thomas Fonnesbæk present their take on a classical piece of jazz, playing the music of Oscar Peterson and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen - classical but improvised! OP and NHØP gave us something unique and unforgettable, just as the classical composers did and still do. Being the world’s greatest virtuosos on piano and double bass respectively, their immense technique and ‘Touch’ made them unique. Their collaboration was likewise special because they were equals. For instance, Oscar Peterson’s arrangement for “On The Trail” (Great Connection, 1971) was presumably written because he had found a bassist that could keep up both musically and technically. OP & NHØP gave us something extraordinary and unforgettable, exactly like the great classical composers did and continue doing - and now Kristiansen and Fonnesbæk share their idea of how it could be played today.

REVIEW:

One of the swingingest pianists in jazz history, Oscar Peterson, is given tribute with one of his best bassists, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen ( better known as NHOP) on this concert of duets between Soren Kristiansen/p and Thomas Fonnesbaek/b. The May, 2021 recordings in Copenhagen mix originals by the two as well as a handful of standards, and the two converse and bounce like the original string trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis.

Kristiansen provides classy chords on the hip “Soft Winds” while Fonnesbaek delivers a rich bass line on “Nigerian Marketplace”. Peterson’s feel is captured well on “The Trail”, with bopping unison lines and a nifty left hand. Dark and dramatic moods are created for “On Danish Shore” with pretty melodies bouncing on “Wheatland”. Fonnesbaek is stately on the intro and lad on the uptown “There Is No Greater  Love”, and steps out for Kristiansen to give a heartfelt aria on the solemn “Hymn To Freedom”. Classy conversations.

-- JazzWeekly.com (George W. Harris)

Cool Sweetness could be a nice cold and tasty cocktail…or maybe an irresistible ice cream… But actually, it is the name of Danish trombonist Anders Jacobsen’s jazz sextet. “Cool” because the main inspiration comes from the cool jazz as they played it on the American West Coast in the fifties. “Sweetness” because that is how the sextet members really are. Six nice, good-natured and humorous men who love to play good jazz. The music on their new album “Shoehorn Shuffle” is primarily composed and arranged by Jacobsen and the album features a strong line-up of the coolest players on the Danish jazz scene, including Thomas Fryland (trumpet), Jens Søndergaard (sax), Pelle von Bülow (guitar), Ole Skipper (bass) and Aage Tanggaard (drums).

‘The music on this fine recording is quite simply - just wonderful! The beauty and spirit of quality is always evident. The writing, execution, soli, and recorded sound are a joy to experience! The sense of swing and great groove puts a big smile on my face. many thanks to Anders for his terrific writing and assembling all these superb musicians!’ (Jiggs Whigham)

REVIEW:

The group have all the right attributes, good sound, calm execution, and the correct solo power to place them alongside the iconic cool jazz players of yesteryear.

-- Jazzwise (UK)

Chris Potter writes: “Jim McNeely has always been one of my favorite composer/ arrangers, so I was thrilled to get the chance to work with him on [this] piece inspired by one of my favorite compositions, The Rite of Spring. He also arranged some of my music in a way that made me hear my own compositions in a fresh way. The band was a total delight to work with and played beautifully throughout, and I’m very proud of the result.”

REVIEW:

"Rituals," both the name of the album and of the work which accounts for a majority of its runtime, was originally commissioned as a tribute to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” for a performance marking the 100-year anniversary of the Paris premiere of the “Rite.” It is fascinating to observe how McNeely pays tribute to the source while creating a work that is distinct, separate and his own.

In the course of Chris Potter’s solos and cadenzas in “Rituals”, he seems to capture the essence of the work’s fecund chaos. It sounds as though he is giving his absolute all and relishing every moment (in this position, it is hard to imagine any other soloist doing a better job). He is also composer of the final four tracks on the album, all still arranged by McNeely. 

The union of a composer such as Jim McNeely, at the height of his abilities, with the virtuosic powerhouse that is Chris Potter, supported by one of the world’s most accomplished bands, has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, this is an album that seems to successfully fulfil expectations and keep delivering new revelations.

-- London Jazz News (Charles Rees)