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Various Artists: African Rhythms: Afro-Centric Homages to a Spiritual Homeland
by Chris May
One of four themed, double-CD compilations from the Blue Note vaults released in the same month--the others are New York Is Our Home (dealing with emergent hard bop), The Funk Jazz Brothers (early 1970s funk-jazz) and On The Corner (early 1970s fusion)--African Rhythms brings together 17 tracks recorded by Blue Note artists between 1957-70 which paid ...
Bobby Hutcherson: Head On
by Chris May
A brilliant addition to Blue Note's Connoisseur series, Head On not only resuscitates vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson's fascinating but obscure 1971 album of the same name, it also--with 43 minutes of previously unissued material--reveals another album altogether, made during the second half of the same three-day session, of the same high quality but with a markedly different ...
Gonzalo Rubalcaba: Avatar
by J Hunter
Listening to Avatar--pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba's first release since 2006--is kind of like eating unshelled lobster: It takes hard work and a will of iron to get to the meat. And while that meat may be succulent to some, the taste may not be for everybody. The problem originates with the “shell" that surrounds most of the ...
Lionel Loueke: Karibu
by Joel Roberts
Guitarist/singer Lionel Loueke's remarkable odyssey from the West African nation of Benin to the apex of the jazz world is quickly becoming the stuff of legend. After hearing a George Benson CD as a teenager, Loueke became enamored with American jazz and began traversing the globe to further his musical education, first in the neighboring Ivory ...
Lee Morgan: Lee Morgan
by Samuel Chell
Were it not for the mature and ceaselessly lyrical contributions of tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, this RVG remaster of an eponymous 1956 Lee Morgan date (subtitled, on the backside of the album, Volume 2: Sextet) would appeal only to Morgan completists. The trumpeter's early Blue Note recordings and meteoric rise have already been documented by a ...
Dianne Reeves: When You Know
by J Hunter
The liner notes on When You Know offer the possibility of greatness: Geoffrey Keezer and Billy Childs split time on keyboards; Russell Malone lends his wizardry to most of the date; and the rhythm section is top notch, whether it's manned by Reuben Rogers and Greg Hutchinson, or by Reginald Veal and Antonio Sanchez. Then there's ...
Wayne Shorter: The Soothsayer
by Chris May
A good month for tenor saxophone connoisseurs, April 2008, with a second Rudy Van Gelder re-master released alongside Ike Quebec's signature Blue & Sentimental (Blue Note, 2008). The Soothsayer may be comparably less of a benchmark in Wayne Shorter's discography, and remains to some extent overshadowed by its close contemporary Speak No Evil (Blue Note, 1964), ...
Ike Quebec: Blue & Sentimental
by Chris May
Ill health and “personal problems" prevented Ike Quebec (1918-63) from becoming the star he could otherwise have been. The tenor saxophonist straddled 1940s swing-to-bop with as much style as his near contemporary, Dexter Gordon. His warm, weighty, approximately out-of-Coleman Hawkins playing was tailor-made for the hard bop era which followed--but he spent most of the 1950s ...
Horace Silver: Live at Newport '58
by J Hunter
The John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk Quartet earth-shaker At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005) set a pretty high watermark, and other historical recordings inevitably have a lot to live up to. Pianist Horace Silver's Live at Newport '58 is very good, and is certainly historically significant, but is it Carnegie Hall good? Perhaps not quite.
Floratone: Floratone
by Jim Santella
Electronics and special effects color Floratone's eponymous debut liberally; however, the core focus of this modern quartet remains tied to jazz tradition. Along with producers Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain have formed Floratone in the image of progressive jazz of the 21st century. They've collaborated to blend elements of ...
