Zeitlin Trio

Pianist/psychiatrist Denny Zeitlin has managed to balance two seemingly disparate careers for four decades.  His large catalog of music is both inventive and enduring, suggesting an approach to therapy that prompts free association and creative, interactive problem solving. Performing and recording often in solo and duo formats, Zeitlin has always had a particular affinity for the trio of piano, bass and drums, which he describes as creating “an equilateral triangle of great flexibility, mutuality and stability.” These characteristics define his latest Sunnyside release, In Concert, as well as the simultaneously released retrospective from Mosaic, Denny Zeitlin: The Columbia Trio Sessions, amassed from his 1960s releases, Cathexis, Carnival, and Zeitgeist.  

In the 1960s, Zeitlin’s trio included bassists Cecil McBee, Charlie Haden and Joe Halpin; his drumming cohorts included Freddie Waits, Jerry Granelli and Oliver Johnson. Personnel changed over the years, and in the late 90s he finally had the opportunity to record with the great bassist Buster Williams and acclaimed drummer Al Foster. Foster was no longer available a few years later when Zeitlin organized a West Coast tour, and a friend recommended rising star Matt Wilson.  The Zeitlin/Williams/Wilson trio proved to be a magical ensemble, releasing the praised Slickrock on MaxJazz in 2004. The live In Concert is a worthy successor. 

Joe Lovano©Andrea Canter

Here it is,  February 2009, and I am still trying to listen to the sounds of 2008. The past year saw many fine recordings issued from the major labels to small Indies to the growing Artists Share projects. Of the following, each deserves its own extended review, but a one-track sampling of a handful, and shorter statements for another pile, will have to suffice and whet appetites for the rest. To manage attention spans, this first set of reviews includes recordings where horns are prominent throughout the recording; subsequent articles will address favorites “without horns” and vocal jazz. 

In no particular order, and in recognition that I have not (yet) heard every worthy recording of the past year... and not enough time to review them all: 

Joe Lovano, Symphonica (Blue Note/WDR). Tenor titan Joe Lovano has been a prolific in recent years as any jazz artist on the planet, but until Symphonica, he had not tackled a full-length production with symphony orchestra. When long-time friend, arranger Michael Abene, took the reins of the famed WDR Big Band/Rundfunk Orchestra of Cologne in 2003, the seeds of Symphonica were planted. This live recording is both a new context and retrospective celebration of Lovano’s creative output and association with Blue Note, drawing on six of his favorite compositions and Charles Mingus’ “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love.”  Symphonic settings, particularly on this scale, don’t always work. This one excels. 

Aurea

“Whenever I hear a new music… I can’t just leave it alone, I have to sort of collaborate, to see how I can speak in that new language with my own voice, with my own way of looking at things... Those beats, particularly the lando, touch something really deep and really old... it's like looking back in time through the window of rhythm.” – Geoffrey Keezer  
 

If lando and festejo become staples of jazz north of the border, we’ll be able to trace these influences not only to their roots in West Africa, coastal Peru and rural Argentina, but all the way to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, hometown of Geoffrey Keezer, one of American jazz’s most ardent brokers of global music. Among the most respected performers and composers on the scene today, Keezer was the wunderkind pianist in the last edition of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (at age 18) before moving on to other prestigious collaborations, including the Contemporary Piano Ensemble (with James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, and Harold Mabern) in the early 1990s, and more recently with the late Ray Brown, Christian McBride, Jim Hall and Dianne Reeves.  

Make Someone Happy

“She swings confidently and casually, setting things at ease through her powerful delivery. She reaches down deep for the kind of feelings that provide a memorable experience.” –Jim Santenella, All About Jazz

Russian born, Israeli raised, Canadian resident Sophie Milman brings a cross cultural bent to to a jazz sensibility that seems well beyond her 24 years. After receiving a Juno nomination for her 2006 eponymous release, she wasted little time coming back with a second that stole the show, winning the 2008 Juno with Make Someone Happy. The new release has its roots in an I-Tunes EP, Live at the Wintergarden Theater, which debuted #1 in Canada and brought forth considerable accolades. Touring with her band further  laid the foundation for Make Someone Happy, released on Linus Entertainment.

Distances

Norma Winstone has been at the top of the jazz vocal scene in Great Britain since she was first heard in the company of Rashaan Roland Kirk at Ronnie Scott’s, and later in tandem with British modernists Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, John Taylor and more. With Taylor and Wheeler, she formed the acclaimed trio Azimuth in the late 70s, recording with this trio and as leader herself on ECM. Although often involved in projects with fellow Brits, Winstone also collaborated with Steve Swallow, Gary Burton and Fred Hersch on this side of the Atlantic. Noted British critic Stanley Nicholson, “Norma Winstone is one of the great jazz vocalists not simply because she is so obviously accomplished in what she does, but the sheer range of her singing embraces everything the jazz vocalist can be called upon to do.” What she prefers to do is her own thing as composer, lyricist and explorer of words and sounds without words. “I never thought of it as copying an instrument,” she told Nicholson for Jazz.com. “I thought of it as a sound, which is what it is. Why can’t a voice be used as a texture? I could never see why some people didn’t like the idea of it, it’s a whole interesting world. I like singing words, too, but I don’t see why you’ve always got to sing words.”

Reflections

“This album represents the culmination of a meaningful relationship between three musicians. Composing and navigating this music together has allowed us to develop a deeper understanding of each other’s individual artistic intentions... We have cultivated a body of original repertoire, a reflection of our collective identity.” – Reid Kennedy, Reflections 
 

“I consider myself very lucky to be a part of a project with Chris and Graydon,” said drummer Reid Kennedy, “and there is no way the music would have turned out the way it did without their dedication and abilities.” Considering the way the music on Reflections turned out, it is clear that Kennedy enlisted the perfect bandmates for his recording debut. The trio will celebrate the release at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul on March 18th at 9 pm.