By C. Michael Bailey

Storming the Beaches… The new jazz record label MAXJAZZ threw a grenade into the music market with their first release on June 8th ofBlues In The City by vocalist LaVerne Butler (MXJ 105). This release, the first in MAXJAZZ’s “Vocal Series” has been followed approximately monthly by Carla Cook’s It’s All About Love (MXJ 106) on July 13th, Christine Hitt’s You’d Be so Nice To Come Home To (MXJ 107) on August 10th, and finally, Asa Harris’ All In Good Time (MXJ 108) on September 14th. Each of this recordings is characterized by an inventive and eclectic choice of vocal standards and originals from Tin Pan Alley, Modern Popular, Broadway, Bebop, and R&B. All accomplished with no replication from one artist to the next. The results are very fine…very fine indeed.

The Straw Man. MAXJAZZ is the brainchild of St. Louis business man Richard McDonnell. McDonnell began his love affair with jazz in high school, where he studied reeds, developing a fairly good saxophone style. Keeping his day job not unlike RED Records’ Sergio Veschi in the fledgling days of his Italian label, McDonnell has made MAXJAZZ his labor of love and investment. In an interview with Billboard’s Steve Graybow, McDonnell defines the label’s objectives as making, “…the music accessible to the listener who might not be plugged into jazz.”

McDonnell is accomplishing this objective by providing otherwise unrecognized talent a platform from which to disseminate his vision. The quite superb first release by the label, LaVerne Butler’s Blues In The City (reviewed by this critic in the August Issue of AAJ is a case in point. With a perfect blues sensibility, Butler swings through “Please Send Me Someone to Love”, “Hit the Road Jack”, and “I’m A Fool to Want You”, all in the same recording. But this eclecticism is not unique to Butler’s release, It is also common to the others.

The Vocal Series. The releases of this “Vocal Series” have much in common. Producers Rick Haydon and Bruce Barth chose small combos and placed the singers in duo, trio, quartet and quintet settings. There are no brass and reeds only in the form of a clarinet, show up once on Carla Cook’s offering. Cook also employs white-hot Regina Carter on violin. Otherwise these recordings are bass, drums, piano, and guitar affairs. Perfect vehicles to the voice, the centerpiece of these first recordings.

The choice of songs is super and surprising. The unexpected treasures that emerge include Butler’s “Hit The Road Jack” and “Backwater Blues”. Carla Cook offers Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues” and Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold”. Christine Hitt, for her part provides “Sitting in a Tree” and “In a Mellow Tone”. Finally, Asa Harris delights with “The Jitterbug Waltz” and “Tuxedo Junction”. Not all the super standard fare, but all feeling as natural as the smell of Thanksgiving.

Interactive. Each disc has a Quicktime® video readily playable on most PCs. This extra adds much to the enjoyment of the discs. The sound is very good, even on the worst of computer speakers. I direct the interested to Carla Cook’s “The Way You Look Tonight”…what a cool voice bass duet. Not to single Cook out as better, the other video offerings are also very enjoyable.

The CDs are all similarly packaged in stylish cardboard jewel cases with soft-toned photography and exceptional liner notes, all bearing the same tasteful structural design. This packaging makes the label readily identifiable in the same way that 32 Jazz’s labeling identifies that label.

The Website. MAXJAZZ sports an easily navigated website MAXJAZZ. The reader can find basic information about the label as well links t and is well laid out.o the artist’s homepages. It downloads easily and quickly.

The Future That same website also betrays the future of the label which include releases by Mardra and Reggie Thomas, pianist Dave Venn, the Kennedy Brothers Combo, and Brilliant Corners. It should be great fun and a good service to the jazz market to watch this new label grow.