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Erik APPLEGATE: – Two’s Company – Artist Alliance

by Audiophile Audition | Mar 4, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Erik APPLEGATE: – Two’s Company – Artist Alliance, 57:17 (2/1/17) ****: (Erik Applegate; bass/Dana Landry; piano/ Steve Kovalcheck; guitar/ Paul McKee; trombone/ Kenyon Brenner; tenor saxophone/ Tom Amend; piano) A fine bassist collaborates with five faculty members of the University of Northern Colorado on a set of duos. Sometimes I grow a little tired of the instrumentation of the modern jazz ensemble and its restricted sonority. Trumpet, saxophone, guitar rhythm section plus or minus a guitar very nearly form a convention. In those moments, I wish I could ask all of the instruments to leave the stage but for the bass, plus one other. The duo would clear the air and provide a paring down and concentration of musical idea and expression. The result would be a more personal form of communication. As it happens, I have just discovered a new CD, digging deep into the pile, led by a bass player who collaborates with five different players in a set of duos. Erik Applegate, the leader, does not have to go far to find his friends. They are all fellow instructors at Northern Colorado University music program. Applegate has played with some big names in the business as has […]

Howard Johnson & Gravity – Testimony – Tuscarora

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 20, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Howard JOHNSON and Gravity – Testimony – Tuscarora 17-001, 53:39, (3/3/17) ****: (Howard Johnson: BB-flat tuba, baritone sax, pennywhistle/ Velvet Brown; Ens. leader, F-tuba/ Dave Bergeron; E-flat tuba/ Earl McIntyre; E-flat tuba/ Joseph Daley; BB-flat tuba/ Bob Stewart; CC tuba/ Carlton Holmes; piano/ Melissa Slocum; bass/ Buddy Williams; drums) Low rumbles, virtuosic soloing and great charts feature in newest Howard Johnson tuba ensemble session. At an impressionable moment in my youth, I encountered a stupendous work of art, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, by Charles Mingus. In place of the leader’s bass, there was a massed rank of low brass, including tuba, that thrummed and growled with dark menace against the caterwauling soloist. I recall a hip elder remarking that this ensemble represented an absolute standard for “bottom” in a big band. That indelible, bone-rattling sound came back to me as I surveyed Howard Johnson’s 2017 Gravity, which features an ensemble of six tubas, and not at the expense of the doublebass. It looks like the bottom has only now been reached. With all due respect to that incomparable musician Mr. Howard Johnson, I was initially skeptical. Having reached an age of ripeness, if not deliquescence, I have an […]

Dizzy Gillespie & Friends – Concert Of The Century – Justin Time

by Audiophile Audition | Dec 18, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

Dizzy Gillespie & Friends – Concert Of The Century – Justin Time Just 259-2, 60:12 ****: A singular aggregation in top-flight form. (Dizzy Gillespie – trumpet/ Ray Brown – bass/ Milt Jackson – vibes/ Hank Jones – piano/ James Moody – tenor sax & flute/ Philly Joe Jones – drums) For a time after World War II until the mid ‘50s, there was a vibrant jazz scene in Montreal Canada. Clubs like the Alberta Lounge, Café St Michel, Chez Parée, Rockheads Paradise, and the Latin Quarter flourished, thus attracting major international jazz players. Additionally Montreal’s fame grew when artists like Oscar Peterson, Paul Bley, Maynard Ferguson and Oliver Jones, each of whom had been born there, gained recognition in the jazz world. After this terrific period, jazz seemed to lose its way, and Montreal its lustre, due in no small measure to the anti-corruption crackdown that took place in the city which closed the clubs and most other night-life. This phase lasted until Expo 67 launched in the city. But it was not until the mid ‘70s however, when an immigrant from French Guiana named Rouè-Doudou Boicel, opened a jazz club called The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club, that the […]

Eyolf Dale – Wolf Valley – Edition

by Audiophile Audition | Dec 13, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

Eyolf Dale – Wolf Valley – Edition 1073, 51:28 (6/10/16) ****½: (Eyolf Dale: piano/ Per Zanussi: bass & saw/ Gard Nilssen; drums/ Andre Roligheten: tenor sax, clarinet/ Hayden Powell: trumpet/ Kristoffer Kompen: trombone/ Rob Waring: vibraphone/ Adrian Loseth Waade: violin) Inspired chamber-jazz octet on a cohesive set of original compositions by leader Eyolf Dale. The number eight, so auspicious for the ancient Chinese, has pleasant association for me as well. There is the brainy pelagic mollusc of eight arms, the month of October, the stout pawns lined up on the second rank. There might be some redundancy involved, as we we see in Mendelssohn’s marvelous Octet, compounded of two string quartets. Yet the other chamber masterpiece by Schubert suggests the principle of ampleness and generosity, a perfect garden party of all available personality types. In a Jazz ensemble, the number is especially lucky for the front line. There are no hard choices between the instruments; all can play. Thus, I was especially happy to see an octet offering by Edition Records, a label that has recently scored a very big hit on this site. The recording under review, led by Norwegian pianist/composer Eyolf Dale, carries the bilingually eponymous title Wolf […]

Shirley Horn, vocals – Live at the 4 Queens – Resonance

by Audiophile Audition | Sep 27, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

Shirley Horn – a unique vocal talent… Shirley Horn – Live at the 4 Queens – Resonance HCD-2015 (1988), 52:43 ***1/2: (Shirley Horn – piano and vocals; Charles Ables – bass; Steve Williams – drums) For far too long Shirley Horn’s fame was confined to the greater Washington, D.C, area, where she resided and raised her daughter. That changed, however, in the mid 1980s, when she began recording for the Verve label. At that time, Verve was a major player on the jazz scene, and Shirley’s unique talents were shown off to a much larger audience. She was a favorite of Miles Davis, and her 1997 album, I Remember Miles, earned her a Grammy for Best Vocal jazz album. Horn recorded nearly 30 albums (mostly for Verve), but it has been almost a decade since new material has been issued. Coming to the rescue, once again, is Zev Feldman, of Resonance Records, super sleuth in discovering live unreleased gems largely from radio sources. As part of a syndicated weekly broadcast at station KNPR (Las Vegas), Shirley was recorded on May 2, 1988 at the 4 Queens club in Vegas. The sound restoration by George Klabin and Fran Gala, is exceptional, […]