The Cookers: Time and Time Again (Motema)
There's a personnel change for this jazz supergroup's fourth album: Donald Harrison replaces Craig Handy in the alto sax chair. Nothing against Handy, whose work I have always enjoyed, but that's an upgrade. I look forward to Harrison -- an excellent composer -- having a hand in the writing for the next Cookers album (though, who knows, he may not -- for some reason, this group has never featured even one of trumpet fixture Eddie Henderson's tunes). For the first time, here there are no tunes from non-members; the emphasis on modal post-bop is stronger than ever.
As usual, the most heavily featured composer is tenor saxophonist Billy Harper; hearing his expanded-for-septet arrangements of his tunes is a welcome treat. For that matter, he is the most distinctive soloist in the band as well, though absolutely everybody here is an ace improviser --...
There's a personnel change for this jazz supergroup's fourth album: Donald Harrison replaces Craig Handy in the alto sax chair. Nothing against Handy, whose work I have always enjoyed, but that's an upgrade. I look forward to Harrison -- an excellent composer -- having a hand in the writing for the next Cookers album (though, who knows, he may not -- for some reason, this group has never featured even one of trumpet fixture Eddie Henderson's tunes). For the first time, here there are no tunes from non-members; the emphasis on modal post-bop is stronger than ever.
As usual, the most heavily featured composer is tenor saxophonist Billy Harper; hearing his expanded-for-septet arrangements of his tunes is a welcome treat. For that matter, he is the most distinctive soloist in the band as well, though absolutely everybody here is an ace improviser --...
- 11/23/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
When I was putting together my best jazz albums of 2012 article, Ivo Perelman's productive year had him dominating the list, so I made him artist of the year and then compiled a separate top ten of new recordings and a top five of older recordings mostly given their first releases this year. There were still plenty of excellent jazz albums to choose from. Jazz isn't dead, it just has to live on a fixed income.
Artist of the Year: Ivo Perelman
Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman's album The Hour of the Star was #18 on my Best New Jazz of 2011 list. He was just warming up for an amazing 2012 in which Leo Records released six -- Six!!! -- Perelman CDs. All of them are excellent (and none of them, alas, are on iTunes yet).
Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Gerald Cleaver The Foreign Legion Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Whit Dickey The Clairvoyant...
Artist of the Year: Ivo Perelman
Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman's album The Hour of the Star was #18 on my Best New Jazz of 2011 list. He was just warming up for an amazing 2012 in which Leo Records released six -- Six!!! -- Perelman CDs. All of them are excellent (and none of them, alas, are on iTunes yet).
Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Gerald Cleaver The Foreign Legion Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Whit Dickey The Clairvoyant...
- 1/1/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
The Cookers: Believe (Motema)
I love this group for featuring Billy Harper, one of the most underrated tenor saxophonists and jazz composers on the scene. That said, it is pretty much an all-star band; the arguable exception, trumpeter David Weiss -- the youngest member -- is the arranger of all the non-Harper tracks on the band's third album, and thus puts as much of a stamp on the project as anyone. The other players are trumpeter Eddie Henderson, long a member of Harper's superb quintet; alto saxophonist Craig Handy, the second-youngest member, who used to have another band with Weiss (pop-culture aside: they also collaborated on the music for The Cosby Mysteries); and the ace rhythm section of pianist George Cables, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Billy Hart, all three of whom contribute compositions here.
(If I have a complaint, it's that after three albums, we still haven't...
I love this group for featuring Billy Harper, one of the most underrated tenor saxophonists and jazz composers on the scene. That said, it is pretty much an all-star band; the arguable exception, trumpeter David Weiss -- the youngest member -- is the arranger of all the non-Harper tracks on the band's third album, and thus puts as much of a stamp on the project as anyone. The other players are trumpeter Eddie Henderson, long a member of Harper's superb quintet; alto saxophonist Craig Handy, the second-youngest member, who used to have another band with Weiss (pop-culture aside: they also collaborated on the music for The Cosby Mysteries); and the ace rhythm section of pianist George Cables, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Billy Hart, all three of whom contribute compositions here.
(If I have a complaint, it's that after three albums, we still haven't...
- 9/30/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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