Ralph_Cramden
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Jazz ♫ Music only | In the now, or recently, or that you love...
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From AllAboutJazz: "A big man with a big plan and a boisterous sextet at his back, trumpeter Derrick Gardner and his razor-fine Jazz Prophets... blow the walls down with Pan Africa... Hyperbole? Not really... Long time Jazz Prophet's alto/tenor saxophonist Robert Dixon, and trombonist brother Vincent Gardner speed chase the leader as each man points his horn to the skies, while bassist Obasi Akoto, drummer Kweku Sumbry, and pianist George Caldwell clear the road ahead. It is a powerhouse tear through... post-bop exoticism."
This is Gardner's ~4th release as a leader since 2003, he's been active since 1989, has played with many greats from his NYC base, and played and arranged for Basie. The video is live in studio, from a 2015 album he sessioned, and the sax player really rips. YouTube and Spotify links to the full album follow. Please enjoy a nice 2023 release.
Derrick Garner & the Jazz Prophets, Pan Africa, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
This is Gardner's ~4th release as a leader since 2003, he's been active since 1989, has played with many greats from his NYC base, and played and arranged for Basie. The video is live in studio, from a 2015 album he sessioned, and the sax player really rips. YouTube and Spotify links to the full album follow. Please enjoy a nice 2023 release.
Derrick Garner & the Jazz Prophets, Pan Africa, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
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Many thanks!!! really good.
melvinjames
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Ralph_Cramden
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With the recent loss of saxophonist Wayne Shorter... Plus, it's a good album...
From AllAboutJazz: "The new album by saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, Phoenix,... moves from a socially aware mix of soul, R'n'B, and jazz fusion in its first half to full-blown spiritual jazz in its second." Guests include singer Diane Reeves, pianist Patrice Rushen, and what may be Wayne Shorter's last recording: "After a few electronically enhanced thoughts from Wayne Shorter, 'Basquait' struts sassily with alto and trumpet bursting out over a steady walking rhythm. The piece sounds like a vintage Shorter composition from his late Blue Note period.
This album shows how adept Benjamin has become at creating populist soul and funk with depth as well as high-flying straight-ahead jazz. It solidifies her standing as an up-and-coming musical force."
This is Lakecia's ~4th album since 2012, and she plays and records with modern jazz and pop greats regularly, so "up-and-coming" is a bit passe. The video is a young Lakecia from 2012, in a wonderful soul-jazz romp. YouTube and Spotify links to the full album follow. Please enjoy a fine 2023 jazz album. What an album cover!
[Dec 2023 addendum: This album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album! Winner announced Jan. 2024.]
Lakecia Benjamin, Phoenix, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
From AllAboutJazz: "The new album by saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, Phoenix,... moves from a socially aware mix of soul, R'n'B, and jazz fusion in its first half to full-blown spiritual jazz in its second." Guests include singer Diane Reeves, pianist Patrice Rushen, and what may be Wayne Shorter's last recording: "After a few electronically enhanced thoughts from Wayne Shorter, 'Basquait' struts sassily with alto and trumpet bursting out over a steady walking rhythm. The piece sounds like a vintage Shorter composition from his late Blue Note period.
This album shows how adept Benjamin has become at creating populist soul and funk with depth as well as high-flying straight-ahead jazz. It solidifies her standing as an up-and-coming musical force."
This is Lakecia's ~4th album since 2012, and she plays and records with modern jazz and pop greats regularly, so "up-and-coming" is a bit passe. The video is a young Lakecia from 2012, in a wonderful soul-jazz romp. YouTube and Spotify links to the full album follow. Please enjoy a fine 2023 jazz album. What an album cover!
[Dec 2023 addendum: This album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album! Winner announced Jan. 2024.]
Lakecia Benjamin, Phoenix, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
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Rotiv
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Ralph_Cramden
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Tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera released his 6th album in 2022, Mestizo. From Downbeat: "There’s no mistaking the sensibility behind this record. The music rises...to make a strong personal statement of cultural pride... This is timeless hard bop, highly individual but plugged into a long tradition. Nothing that Rivera plays sounds formulaic or pre-formed, and the band he has assembled is absolutely with him: disciplined, fiery, logical and freewheeling by turns. Hard to fault anything on this record."
FYI, Diego is a Michigan native, a tenured professor at Michigan State University, and released his first album in 2006. The video is a live tune not on the album, is a bit long, but Diego cooks. YouTube and Spotify album links follow. Please enjoy a really hot recent jazz release.
View attachment 266994
Diego Rivera, Mestizo, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Saxophonist Diego Rivera, who was recommended earlier in this thread, has a new, 2023 album out, Love & Peace. Same band minus Sipiagin. This one's nice too. YouTube and Spotify links provided. Please enjoy another really solid 2023 jazz album.
Diego Rivera, Love & Peace, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
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Ralph_Cramden
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From AllAboutJazz: "Would a big band by any other name swing as hard? That's really hard to say (pardon the pun) but is certainly true on Red Beats, an implacably swinging album deftly performed by drummer Steve Fidyk's fashionably named Live Wire Broad Band. Fidyk, who spent more than two decades keeping flawless time for the U.S. Army Blues...enlisted a number of his former armed service colleagues to lend a hand, which certainly didn't harm the ensemble's combat readiness.
The album itself consists of nine of Fidyk's multi-layered and high-powered compositions. Trumpeter Tim Leahey, leads the parade ... and is superb, as is veteran tenor saxophonist ... Walt Weiskopf.
If indeed Fidyk had swing uppermost in his mind there is no cause for complaint, as the Live Wire Broad Band swings from stem to stern while carrying out its leader's fondest wishes and making Red Beats an especially desirable release."
Fidyk has been active since 1991, released ~15 albums with his army bands, plus ~6 under his own name, with lotsa studio and big band experience, and is a prominent music educator. The video is not with a big band, but a nice guitar duo (both play on the album), bass & Steve. YouTube and Spotify links to the album follow. Please enjoy a swingin' March day.
Steve Fidyk & the Live Wire Broad Band, Red Beats, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
The album itself consists of nine of Fidyk's multi-layered and high-powered compositions. Trumpeter Tim Leahey, leads the parade ... and is superb, as is veteran tenor saxophonist ... Walt Weiskopf.
If indeed Fidyk had swing uppermost in his mind there is no cause for complaint, as the Live Wire Broad Band swings from stem to stern while carrying out its leader's fondest wishes and making Red Beats an especially desirable release."
Fidyk has been active since 1991, released ~15 albums with his army bands, plus ~6 under his own name, with lotsa studio and big band experience, and is a prominent music educator. The video is not with a big band, but a nice guitar duo (both play on the album), bass & Steve. YouTube and Spotify links to the album follow. Please enjoy a swingin' March day.
Steve Fidyk & the Live Wire Broad Band, Red Beats, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
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British tenor saxophonist Binker Golding released his ~7th album in 2022, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy. Most were as a duo with drums in Binker and Moses, since 2015, but this is now his 2nd with a full band, along with 2019s Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers.
From AllAboutJazz: "Golding rarely completely over-blows, he doesn't add screeching but prefers a warm, full-bodied sound. Golding's colleagues are guitarist Billy Adamson, pianist Sarah Tandy, double bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Sam Jones, whose fiery accompaniment propels Golding's compositions forward.
There's steel-guitar, bottle-neck playing, acoustic strumming, electric blues riffing and everything in between... The record leaves little to be desired, with the band seamlessly tying multiple folkloric idioms together to a coherent, immaculately-delivered whole... Very fine musicianship throughout."
The video is a hot performance of a tune from the 2019 album. YouTube and Spotify links to both albums follow. Please enjoy s'more hot new jazz.
Binker Golding, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Binker Bolding, Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
From AllAboutJazz: "Golding rarely completely over-blows, he doesn't add screeching but prefers a warm, full-bodied sound. Golding's colleagues are guitarist Billy Adamson, pianist Sarah Tandy, double bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Sam Jones, whose fiery accompaniment propels Golding's compositions forward.
There's steel-guitar, bottle-neck playing, acoustic strumming, electric blues riffing and everything in between... The record leaves little to be desired, with the band seamlessly tying multiple folkloric idioms together to a coherent, immaculately-delivered whole... Very fine musicianship throughout."
The video is a hot performance of a tune from the 2019 album. YouTube and Spotify links to both albums follow. Please enjoy s'more hot new jazz.
Binker Golding, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Binker Bolding, Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
The second album is more my thing, but yeah, he's good.British tenor saxophonist Binker Golding released his ~7th album in 2022, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy. Most were as a duo with drums in Binker and Moses, since 2015, but this is now his 2nd with a full band, along with 2019s Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers.
From AllAboutJazz: "Golding rarely completely over-blows, he doesn't add screeching but prefers a warm, full-bodied sound. Golding's colleagues are guitarist Billy Adamson, pianist Sarah Tandy, double bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Sam Jones, whose fiery accompaniment propels Golding's compositions forward.
There's steel-guitar, bottle-neck playing, acoustic strumming, electric blues riffing and everything in between... The record leaves little to be desired, with the band seamlessly tying multiple folkloric idioms together to a coherent, immaculately-delivered whole... Very fine musicianship throughout."
The video is a hot performance of a tune from the 2019 album. YouTube and Spotify links to both albums follow. Please enjoy s'more hot new jazz.
View attachment 269802
Binker Golding, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
View attachment 269803
Binker Bolding, Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Ralph_Cramden
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Second installment of, the occasional, Twofer Tuesday, to feature jazz saxophone duo albums, either recent or historical. Collaborations of alto saxophonists Charlie Marinaro and Sadao Watanabe were discussed upstream in this thread, here.
Today’s post is on saxophone collaborations with the world’s greatest living tenor saxophonist, Sonny Rollins. Unsurprisingly, the list is short. Who is gonna go toe to toe with Sonny Rollins, after all?
What should have been the most magnificent tenor sax combo ever recorded, with John Coltrane, of course, was just one song, on Sonny’s 1956 album Tenor Madness. The 12 minute title tune is all that was hoped for, but that was it. No concert duos ever, either. 4 quartet songs filled the album.
Sonny Rollins Quartet, Tenor Madness, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Gillespie/Stitt/Rollins in 1957 gave us Sonny Side Up. That is Dizzy/Sonny/Sonny on trumpet/tenor/tenor. AllMusic described the album as "one of the most exciting 'jam session' records in the jazz catalog. ...both a highly enjoyable jazz set and something of an approximation of the music's once-revered live cutting session". Sonny squared, so to speak.
Gillespie/Stitt/Rollins, Sonny Side Up, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Sonny Meets Hawk! was released in 1963. AllMusic said “Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins each virtually defined the tenor saxophone for his respective generation. To hear the two of them interacting freely is a deliciously exciting experience. Hawkins is able to cut loose like never before. Sometimes the two collide, locking horns and wrestling happily without holding back.” Sonny is on the right channel, and the Hawk left, supposedly.
Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Meets Hawk!, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
BTW, I really only explored Sonny’s discography for this, so I take no responsibility for accuracy, based on 23 minutes of interwebs research. Please add/correct anything necessary. [Oct. update: I found s'more. Don't know if I'll get a chance to update.]
All 3 albums are really good, btw. The video is just Sonny in a trio from 1959, with nice sound. Please enjoy Sonny Rollins, with a sax partner.
Today’s post is on saxophone collaborations with the world’s greatest living tenor saxophonist, Sonny Rollins. Unsurprisingly, the list is short. Who is gonna go toe to toe with Sonny Rollins, after all?
What should have been the most magnificent tenor sax combo ever recorded, with John Coltrane, of course, was just one song, on Sonny’s 1956 album Tenor Madness. The 12 minute title tune is all that was hoped for, but that was it. No concert duos ever, either. 4 quartet songs filled the album.
Sonny Rollins Quartet, Tenor Madness, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Gillespie/Stitt/Rollins in 1957 gave us Sonny Side Up. That is Dizzy/Sonny/Sonny on trumpet/tenor/tenor. AllMusic described the album as "one of the most exciting 'jam session' records in the jazz catalog. ...both a highly enjoyable jazz set and something of an approximation of the music's once-revered live cutting session". Sonny squared, so to speak.
Gillespie/Stitt/Rollins, Sonny Side Up, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
Sonny Meets Hawk! was released in 1963. AllMusic said “Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins each virtually defined the tenor saxophone for his respective generation. To hear the two of them interacting freely is a deliciously exciting experience. Hawkins is able to cut loose like never before. Sometimes the two collide, locking horns and wrestling happily without holding back.” Sonny is on the right channel, and the Hawk left, supposedly.
Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Meets Hawk!, full album: YouTube link. Spotify link.
BTW, I really only explored Sonny’s discography for this, so I take no responsibility for accuracy, based on 23 minutes of interwebs research. Please add/correct anything necessary. [Oct. update: I found s'more. Don't know if I'll get a chance to update.]
All 3 albums are really good, btw. The video is just Sonny in a trio from 1959, with nice sound. Please enjoy Sonny Rollins, with a sax partner.
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Your suggestions are awesome, folks! 
Since 1 January, if a suggestion had a horn player, I tried to find and listen. The keepers are on a Spotify playlist that is currently @ 253 songs, 27 hours, and I'm guessing ~27 albums (cuz Spotify can't track that in a playlist?)
And the month of March just began!
Just finished Wycliffe Gordon's 2000 release, The Search, listen to Leroy Vinegar's, Leroy Walks!, from 1957, as I type, and wind down to Matthew Halsall's 2022 album Changing Earth.
65 year spread! That's Jazz...
Since 1 January, if a suggestion had a horn player, I tried to find and listen. The keepers are on a Spotify playlist that is currently @ 253 songs, 27 hours, and I'm guessing ~27 albums (cuz Spotify can't track that in a playlist?)
And the month of March just began!
Just finished Wycliffe Gordon's 2000 release, The Search, listen to Leroy Vinegar's, Leroy Walks!, from 1957, as I type, and wind down to Matthew Halsall's 2022 album Changing Earth.
65 year spread! That's Jazz...
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