Just A Jazz Word In Your Ear
A Listen Up! column by Zen Delta
As a jazz writer I often get asked what’s the best recent album around or what’s worth hearing. Man that’s a big responsibility and anyway there’s a whole lotta jazz out there. But seeing as I am privy to the lists of what the Grammy judges were considering, here’s the pre-award shortlists and as Miles would say, you can bet this s&@t better be good to be getting this far…
Best Contemporary Jazz Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of INSTRUMENTAL tracks.)
- Keystone
Dave Douglas
[Greenleaf Music] - Soulgrass
Bill Evans
[BHM Productions] - The Way Up
Pat Metheny Group
[Nonesuch] - The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance Of The Infidel
Meshell Ndegeocello
[Shanachie Entertainment Corp.] - Momentum
Joshua Redman Elastic Band
[Nonesuch]
Best Jazz Vocal Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)
- J’ai Deux Amours
Dee Dee Bridgewater
[Sovereign Artists] - Blueprint Of A Lady - Sketches Of Billie Holiday
Nnenna Freelon
[Concord Jazz] - Good Night, And Good Luck
Dianne Reeves
[Concord Jazz] - Duos II
Luciana Souza
[Sunnyside] - I’m With The Band Tierney Sutton
[Telarc Jazz]
Best Jazz Instrumental Solo
(For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter’s name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.)
- ‘Round Midnight
Alan Broadbent, soloist
Track from: ‘Round Midnight
[Artistry Music] - Away
Ravi Coltrane, soloist
Track from: In Flux
[Savoy Jazz] - The Source
Herbie Hancock, soloist
Track from: Flow (Terence Blanchard)
[Blue Note Records] - A Love Supreme - Acknowledgement
Branford Marsalis, soloist
Track from: Coltrane’s A Love Supreme Live In Amsterdam
[Marsalis Music] - Why Was I Born?
Sonny Rollins, soloist
Track from: Without A Song - The 9/11 Concert
[Milestone]
Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of INSTRUMENTAL tracks.)
- Flow
Terence Blanchard
[Blue Note Records] - Lyric
Billy Childs Ensemble
[Lunacy Music/Artistshare] - Live At The House Of Tribes
Wynton Marsalis
[Blue Note Records] - Beyond The Sound Barrier
Wayne Shorter Quartet
[Verve] - What Now?
Kenny Wheeler With Dave Holland, Chris Potter & John Taylor
[CAM Jazz]
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
(For large jazz ensembles, including big band sounds. Albums must contain 51% or more INSTRUMENTAL tracks.)
- Overtime
Dave Holland Big Band
[Sunnyside/Dare2] - A Blessing
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble
[OmniTone] - Live
The Bill Holman Band
[Jazzed Media] - I Am Three
Mingus Big Band, Orchestra & Dynasty
[Sunnyside/Sue Mingus Music] - Home Of My Heart
The Chris Walden Big Band
[Origin]
Best Latin Jazz Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
- Time Was - Time Is
Ray Barretto
[O Plus Music] - Here And Now - Live In Concert
Caribbean Jazz Project Featuring Dave Samuels
[Concord Picante] - …And Sammy Walked In
Sammy Figueroa And His Latin Jazz Explosion
[Savant Records] - Listen Here!
Eddie Palmieri
[Concord Picante] - Mulatos
Omar Sosa
[Ot Records]
Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
- Una Noche Inolvidable
Afro-latin Jazz Orchestra With Arturo O’Farrill
[Palmetto Records Inc] - Masters Of Cuban Son
Conjunto Progreso
[Pimienta Records Corp.] - Buena Vista Social Club Presents
Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal
[Nonesuch] - Tradicin
Tropicana All Stars With Israel Kantor
[Regu Records Corp.] - Bebo De Cuba
Bebo Valds
[Calle 54 Records]
Best Instrumental Arrangement
(An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parenthesis.) Singles or Tracks only.)
- Cherokee
Chris Walden, arranger (The Chris Walden Big Band)
Track from: Home Of My Heart
[Origin] - Do It Again
Bill Cunliffe, arranger (Bill Cunliffe)
Track from: Imaginacin
[Torii] - The Incredits
Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Various Artists)
Track from: The Incredibles - Soundtrack
[Walt Disney Records] - Lullaby Of The Leaves
John Clayton, arranger (The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra)
Track from: The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Live At MCG
[MCG Jazz] - Scarborough Faire
Billy Childs, arranger (Billy Childs Ensemble)
Track from: Lyric [Lunacy Music/Artistshare]
###Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta
The Indonesian capital will once again play host to a major international musical and cultural event on 3, 4 and 5 March 2006. The flagship 2006 Dji Sam Soe Super Premium Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival is the second in an annual series and is already positioned as the largest Music Festival in Asia and one of the most important events in Indonesia’s arts and cultural calendar.
This year’s festival, sponsored by PT HM Sampoerna, is an even bigger version than last year’s musical extravaganza with its unparalleled variety and ambience that gained extensive local, regional and international media coverage.
More than 100 jazz and contemporary groups, featuring over 1, 000 musicians will perform in more than 150 shows on 15 stages over the three days. Audiences at the magnificent Jakarta Convention Center, the same festival venue as last year, are expected to top 60, 000 and be treated to a musical kaleidoscope of jazz, pop, rock, soul, R&B, blues, gospel, ethnic and several other genres.
Six ‘Special Shows’ will see Patti Austin and the Dave Koz Rendezvous All Stars take to the stage on Day 1, followed by Tower of Power. Day 2 will see Take 6 and the Brand New Heavies on stage in separate shows and to wrap up the three day extravaganza Omar and Carleen Andersen will perform with Incognito, followed by the final act of the Festival, Kool & the Gang.
Other international performers include Amp Fiddler, Bob James, Doug Cameron, Eric Benet, George Duke, Lee Ritenour, Patti Austin, Vinny Valentino and a host of others.
The Indonesian line-up includes award-winning singer, Ruth Sahanaya, veteran pianist Bubi Chen, I Wayan Balawan with his exciting mix of Balinese Gamelan and Jazz, top Indonesian drummer Gilang Ramadhan, local rhythm & blues (R&B) crooner Glenn Fredly, Simak Dialog, who have won praise on the local jazz scene for successfully blending European-style jazz with local traditional music and scores of other top local stars.
As well as the local and foreign icons there will be newcomers. Several performers from overseas - the Ad Colen Jazz Quartet Raphael Gualazzi, Youn Sun Nah. Piere Dorge’s New Jungle Orchestra and Hari Stojka - will star in a special bilateral cultural series of performances.
A series of Jam Sessions will see violinist Doug Cameron performing with a group from Indonesia’s Pelita Harapan University: The Dave Koz Rendezvous All Stars will share the stage with Indonesian Idols: Michael Lington will collaborate with the Andi Rianto Orchestra, Shakila and Harvey Malaiholo; Kiboud Maulana, Balawan, Dion and Nanda will perform with Lee Ritenour, Vinny Valentino and Jack Lee in a “Guitar Extravaganza”, and many more.
In recognition of the substantial contribution made by the people of the Moluccas (the Spice Islands) to Indonesian music, particularly jazz, the “Maluku Stage” will showcase the arts and culture of the islands and live performances by several artists many of whom have lived in Holland for several years.
The Festival proper is preceded by no less than 19 pre-event concerts in a series Java Jazz on the Move, and the full supporting program includes three days of music clinics with eight different performers, a sponsored charity gala event “Bringing the World to Indonesia” and a live Gospel session on the Sunday morning.
Once again the Festival has been warmly welcomed and fully supported by both the Culture and Tourism Minister and the Governor of Jakarta, who recognize the immense significance of the event in promoting Indonesia, the richness of it’s arts and culture, it’s people and it’s capital city to the world at large.
###New Music…
Medeski Martin & Wood: NOTE BLEU
Note Bleu - The Best of the Blue Note Years 1998 - 2005 from Medeski Martin & Wood will be released on April 4, 2006. A special edition will feature bonus tracks plus a DVD of assorted videos, a mini documentary made in France, live footage, and various goodies filmed during the Blue Note years.
Both versions will feature tracks from all five Blue Note albums: Combustication, Tonic, The Dropper, Uninvisible, and End of the World Party (just in case).
Soft Machine “Floating World Live” CD
This CD marks the first release of a live performance by Soft Machine’s Bundles line-up featuring Allan Holdsworth on guitar. This concert, recorded for Radio Bremen in January 1975, consists of most of the Bundles material, which hadn’t yet come out although in the can since the previous summer, plus a couple of band improvs and solo showcases for Mike Ratledge, Roy Babbington and John Marshall. That era of Soft Machine was unique in that, taking the band’s long established tradition of continuous change to an extreme, when Holdsworth joined all the previous repertoire was abandoned, literally at once, in favour of brand new material written by Karl Jenkins and, to a lesser extent, Mike Ratledge. This made the new Soft Machine even more difficult to compare with its predecessors, and gave the band a well-deserved chance for critical reappraisal. At long last, reviewers stopped bemoaning the loss of the band’s father figures to judge the new line-up on its own merits. As a consequence, positive reviews again began to pour in, and 1974-75 was to prove Soft Machine’s second golden age in many respects.
By the release of Bundles in 1975, Mike Ratledge was Soft Machine’s only original member. With relative newcomer Karl Jenkins‚ with his increasingly dominant compositional role, there was little tying them to the classic line-up that released albums like Third. But it was guitarist Allan Holdsworth, appearing virtually out of nowhere with a revolutionary melodic and harmonic approach–who placed this Softs incarnation on equal footing with earlier line-ups. Recorded for German Radio Bremen months before Bundles was released, Floating World Live is a powerful live performance that, despite Holdsworth’s dominating presence, provides plenty of space for all - proof that they were far looser and interactive in concert than Bundles suggests. An exciting 75-minute set, Floating World Live demonstrates just how well-formed Holdsworth was this early in his career, and proves that critics writing this incarnation off as nothing more than riff-heavy fusion couldn‚t be more mistaken.
Classic Allan Holdsworth, in one of his best ever performances ever, monster bass and fuzz-bass lines by Roy Babbington, psycho analog synths and an incredible polyrhythmic drumming by John Marshall! Think of a jazz-rock jam band excuting killer riffs, atop attractive Canterbury-style overtones…Soft Machine fans will rejoice!
USA street date: March 21, 2006. MoonJune Records, distributed by City Hall Records.
Zen Delta is Creative Director of ACMEBROADC@ST MARKETING SERVICES which specializes in providing writing, editing, graphic design, printing, promotion + publicity services as well as publishing, web design, photography, film and music production. Contact: postmaster@acmebroadcast.tvheaven.com.
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