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Shirley Scott: Trio Classics, Vol. 1
by Derek Taylor
Over the past several years Fantasy has made great strides in returning portions of the classic Shirley Scott catalog to print. Their assiduous attention illustrates both the quality of Scott’s reservoir of recordings and its depth. This latest two-fer package collects a pair of albums that originate from the same single-day 1958 Rudy Van Gelder session. ...
Opus de Funk: Johnny "Hammond" Smith
by Derek Taylor
Individuality was a prized commodity during the soul jazz organ boom that bridged the Fifties and Sixties. With so many ensembles exploding like popcorn kernels in the cultural kettles of numerous North American cities, the critical slight of “a dime a dozen” carried more clout than most of the artists wanted to admit. ...
Red Garland: Red Alone
by Derek Taylor
Solo piano sessions hold only a fraction of the mystique they once did in jazz. These days it’s far from uncommon for a pianist to crank out a session of him- or herself alone at the ivories, the precedence for the practice having long since been set. But back when this recently reissued Moodsville album came ...
Frank Wess: The Frank Wess Quartet
by Derek Taylor
Frank Wess, sterling saxophone star of the classic Fifties Count Basie Band, leads a relaxed date eponymous to his chosen band size on this recent Original Jazz Classics reissue. The Moodsville tag should give fairly solid indication of what’s in store. Six standards and an original fill out the set list with an emphasis on balmy ...
Harris Eisenstadt Quintet: Jalolu
by Derek Taylor
African referents in jazz are nothing new. Second Line Congolese rhythms crop up in the earliest New Orleans street music and syncopation lies at the root of pioneering ragtime. Drummers from Dodds to Blakey to Drake have been incorporating these patterns and practices for the better part of a century. As with any other facet of ...
William Gagliardi Quintet: Hear and Now
by Derek Taylor
Just like most of his peers, Bill Gagliardi is building a discography brick by inexorable brick. He breaks ranks from their number with the realization that his activity in the studio has only born commercially released fruit in the past few years. Why the late ingress to the scene? Reasons are vague, but seem to stem ...
Paul Dunmall/Paul Rogers/Kevin Norton: Go Forth Duck
by Derek Taylor
Similar in cast to its predecessor, this disc presents the second part of a Spirit Room session from spring of last year. The touring trio of Dunmall, Rogers and Norton slake their substantial creative music thirsts on two massive slabs of improvised music broken by a comparatively cursory interlude. Back-story on the players as individuals is ...
Devorah Day: Standard
by Derek Taylor
Vocalist plus accompanist sessions constitute a small but singular niche in the ever-ballooning CIMP catalog. As with the label’s other projects, these dates have a strong element of risk. Engineer Marc Rusch’s method of recording offers nothing in the way of compensatory tampering for the singer’s voice. What you hear is exactly what was sung or ...
Clifton Chenier: Sings the Blues
by Derek Taylor
Everyone has a list of those unsung musicians who strike a special chord. Names unknown to the public at large whose contributions go almost completely unrecognized or are overshadowed by others in their immediate orbit. Near the top of my own list sits Cleveland Chenier. Like the lots handed Nat Adderley and Tommy Turrentine, Cleveland almost ...
William Parker & The Ohnedaruth String Quartet: A Flower for Feldman
by Derek Taylor
In the spring of 2001, bassist William Parker made a brief trip to England under the auspices of a holiday with his wife Patricia. A clandestine purpose behind the excursion was to meet at a studio location with a select cadre of London musicians. Turns out Parker has long been a fan of Morton Feldman's works ...
