Episode 376: Selected New Jazz Releases Part 2

I'm finding that listening to many of the jazz albums released this year, I'm getting a clearer perspective on the connection between jazz's history and where we are today.

The episode starts with the new Ellas Kapell (a Swedish quartet) and their fascinating version of Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was". I like this group partly because I can actually understand what they are doing....and I love it!

I follow it with Edmonton's most recorded jazz pianist, the amazing Chris Andrew and his first solo piano album. Here he does his rendition of a Gigi Gryce tune first recorded by The Clifford Brown Sextet in 1954.

Other old tunes given a new life in this episode include Misty....an uptempo version by Jeff Goldblum and his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, with guest vocalist Melody Gardot. Then there's an old New Orleans tune recorded by Ernie K Doe in 1960, here performed by Charlie & The Tropicales (Charlie Halloran with New Orleans singer and guitaris Sal Baby Geloso). T'ain't It The Truth. And then there's a jazz big band arrangement of James Taylor's Fire and Rain that ends the episode.

That particular tune provides a powerful finish to the episode, where I have two similar themes providing an extreme contrast between the most out there avant garde recording and something that resembles 'smooth jazz'. Martin Kuchen's Chase The Demons Out--which feels "disturbingly current as the war aain ravages the Middle East, where rockets, aircraft, and attack drones serve the ambitions of those in power" transforms into that sweet James Taylor song that only vaguely suggests the background of sizzling temperatures and fire in some parts of the world and the torrential rain storms we've experienced in parts of Alberta and Ontario.

And between all that?

The further evolution of the "Bluegrass Meets Jazz" first begun (as far as I know) by Tony Trischka and now evolving into the latest album by The Punch Brothers featuring mandolinist Chris Thile.

Then there's somebody you may know.....but this is the first time I've heard her and been wowed! Singer Nicole Zuraitis and her latest album called The Devil I Knew. With a delightful tenor saxopohone solo by Donny McCaslin.

One totallly new discovery and an album I've been listening to a lot is Montreal's Greenhouse Ensemble, putting together a composition they describe as "folowing the rhythm of the tides in all their unpredictability an force with the image of drifting down the St. Lawrence River toward the open sea".

Then there is bassist Avishai Cohen with a title inspired by the pronunciation of 'blues' by his Japanese fan base.

And last but not least, the fifteenth album by Vijay Iyer, Henry Threadgill, and Dafnis Prieto and a track that has been described by one reviewer as "holding a steady course between sway and swagger---like three old pros on a joyride".