Howard University Jazz Ensemble 2024: A Return to Glory

The Howard University Jazz Ensemble celebrates its golden anniversary in 2024 with the release of its annual studio recording, A Return to Glory, dedicated this year to Howard alumnus Chadwick Boseman, an acclaimed actor best known for his starring role in the film Black Panther and his masterful film portrayals of baseball star Jackie Robinson and soul singer James Brown. Boseman left us far too soon, at age forty-three, in August 2020.

The album marks another historic milestone for the ensemble, as it is the last one to be recorded under its first and only music director, Fred Irby III, who plans to step aside this year after having led the ensemble from its inception in 1974. As usual, Irby has chosen the menu with care, devoting one track to the late great Max Roach's "The Drum Also Waltzes" (with Jonathan Laine ably sitting in for Roach) and others to engaging themes by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Sam Jones, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and Billy Joel to accompany the session's capstone (and lone standard), the impassioned "Lover Man."

The session opens brightly with Lennon and McCartney's melodious "Blackbird," embraces an easygoing groove on Hancock's familiar "Dolphin Dance" and shifts into higher gear on Shorter's prancing "Beauty and the Beast" (bolstered by Kenneth Nunn's nimble flute work) before turning to "The Drum Also Waltzes," on which Laine, performing solo, delivers a perceptive and powerful reading. The seductive "Del Sasser" (a.k.a. "The Night We Called It a Day") is next, followed by Monk's largely tenebrous "Misterioso," Silver's mellow "Peace" and Joel's dynamic "My Life." Vocalist Egheosa Passion Igbinoba is suitably ardent on "Lover Man," which couples rigorous ensemble work with a limber solo by trombonist Mark Williams.

Aside from Laine, Williams and Nunn (who adds a sharp alto narrative on "Beauty and the Beast"), the ensemble's expressive solo voices include those of pianist Alanah Butler ("Dolphin Dance"), guitarists Kyle Rice (showcased on "My Life") and Jackson Dunkin and especially tenor saxophonist Ellis Hollingsworth, who shares blowing space with Rice on "Del Sasser," Dunkin on "Misterioso" and has center stage to himself on "Peace." As for the ensemble, it is assiduous and alert on every number, ensuring with every well-placed note that Irby leaves his long-standing position with a bang, not a whimper.