Bailey's Bundles
Late-Period Art Pepper Box Sets
by C. Michael Bailey
In his essay, Endgame," which opens the liner notes to Art Pepper: The Complete Galaxy Recordings (Galaxy, 1989), music critic Gary Giddens said of Art Pepper's professional comeback: Pepper's sudden reappearance in 1975 was something of a second coming in musical circles. For the next seven years, his frequent recordings and tours, and the publication in 1979 of the autobiography he and his wife Laurie wrote, Straight Life, transformed him from a gifted altoist who had made ...
read moreAn Embarrassment of Riches From Hamburg: Recent Releases From Nagel-Heyer
by C. Michael Bailey
This article was first published at All About Jazz in February 2001. While Nagel-Heyer Records is breaking ground with contemporary jazz releases with their Nagel-Heyer 2000 Series, showcasing music by Terell Stafford, Wycliffe Gordon, Byron Stripling, and many others, the Hamburg-centered label's catalog continues to populate itself with the fine traditional jazz recitals that have long been their forte. I recently had the good fortune of receiving a glut of these recordings for my consideration and decided to ...
read moreNovember 2022: Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration
by C. Michael Bailey
Lyn Stanley Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration A. T. Music 2022 Vocalist Lyn Stanley ironically calls her ensemble the Big Band Jazz Maverick when it is she who is the maverick, the evidence being how seamlessly she expands the holiday canon on Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration. Over the past decade, Stanley has done two significant things: one, she has methodically and with carefully considered concepts addressed in the Great American Songbook, ...
read moreOctober 2022: Smile
by C. Michael Bailey
Tawanda Smile Resonance Records 2022 Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, known professionally as Tawanda, tied for first place in the 9th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition held in June 2021. That is fresh talent. Tawanda won this award only a year after making her stage debut, a feat, surpassed only by the aptitude and maturity revealed on her debut recording, Smile. Tawanda seems to go from zero to belonging in the esteemed company of Veronica ...
read moreSeptember 2022: Jazz Child
by C. Michael Bailey
Sheila Jordan Live At Mezzrow's Cellar Music 2022 Nonagenarian Sheila Jordan is a jazz singer enjoying an incandescent twilight. In late 2021, Jordan appeared on Roseanna Vitro's Sing A Song of Bird (Skyline Records, 2021) singing a song contra-composed in her honor from Charlie Parker's Cheryl," -"Sheila, Jazz Child." Jordan, along with drummer Roy Haynes, remains the last living connection to the famous alto saxophonist, who is generously represented on Jordan's Live at Mezzrow. ...
read moreAugust 2022: Higher Ground
by C. Michael Bailey
DO'A Higher Grounds Outside In Music 2022 Polymath composer, guitarist and pianist, DO'A, possesses an embarrassment of talent equal only to the smoky and concealed mystery surrounding her and her provocative moniker. Her voice is deeply alto: dusky, rich, and indulgent, like dark chocolate, full of crepuscular secrets and seductive charisma. Her musical vehicle is largely a Latin vibe with an elastic momentum defying any interfering inertia. Conceived and recorded remotely, Higher Grounds reflects ...
read moreJuly 2022: Love Of The Tiger
by C. Michael Bailey
Dida Pelled Love Of The Tiger Self Produced 2022 Jazz singing is seeing an uptick of artists stepping out of their traditional" roles into dramatically different vocal genres altogether. Mainstream-to-progressive Kristina Koller, who debuted in 2017 with the youthful and forward-thinking Perception (Self Produced) followed that effort with the hard-left turn of Stronger (Self Produced, 2019), on which Koller seizes the feet of the musical arts, shaking the change from its pockets. Now, we ...
read moreJune 2022: Constellations
by C. Michael Bailey
ChimyTina Constellations La Reserve 2022 ChimyTina is a collision moniker for the duo of bassist Dan Chimy" Chmeilinski and vocalist Martina DaSilva. They are part of a daring group of singers/bassists perfecting the most musically intimate of performance formats. With the bass as the harmony" instrument supporting a vocalist, there is an added tension in performance brought on by the absence of chords, relying instead on single-note disposition. It takes an exceptional bassist ...
read moreMay 2022: Music In The Air
by C. Michael Bailey
Mark Christian MIller Music In The Air Sliding Jazz Door 2022 Southern California has an embarrassment of jazz vocal riches, of which Mark Christian Miller is a considerable part. A welcome fixture in the Los Angeles area, Miller has released two previous recordings in 2004's Dreamer With A Penney (Sliding Glass Door) and Crazy Moon (Sliding Glass Door, 2015). The singer returns with Music In The Air, a collection of love-inspired compositions shot through with ...
read moreApril 2022: Get Out Of Town
by C. Michael Bailey
Kristina Koller Get Out Of Town Self Produced 2022 Youthful, vibrant, and musically precocious, vocalist / composer Kristina Koller answers her two previous recordings: the gracefully insurgent Perception (Self Produced, 2018) and frankly anarchic Stronger (Self Produced, 2019) with the intensely focused Get Out Of Town, devoted to a dramatic reconsideration of the music of Cole Porter. Koller favors humid and moody arrangements that are the sonic equivalent of chiaroscuro in the visual arts. ...
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