Under-the-radar titles among year’s top jazz releases
As the year edges toward its close, it’s time to reflect on albums that flew under the radar within the jazz community. Two significant CDs, both released in the fourth quarter, deserve note as recordings that were among 2006’s best but didn’t raise much of a ruckus when they hit store shelves.
The first is pianist Dave Burrell’s superb trio album, “Momentum,” released November 14 on High Two. With bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Guillermo E. Brown, Burrell, 66, crafts a masterwork of lyricism and jaunty adventure that is fueled by tradition and avant-garde sensibilities. On seven originals, Burrell plinks on the keys with a percussive touch, traces melodic lines with a gentle elegance and splashes and sprinkles color with understated dissonance. This is Burrell’s second album after a 30-year hiatus as a leader. Judging from this disc, expect more revelations.
The second CD, “Memories of T,” was recorded by drummer Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet, produced by trumpeter/arranger Don Sickler, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder and released October 31 on Concord. The album pays homage to the magical music of pianist/composer Thelonious Monk in a captivatingly fresh and straight-ahead manner. While, since his death in 1982, Monk’s harmonically whimsical music has been rediscovered and covered extensively, “Memories of T” stands among the best celebrations of his brilliance.
DVD PICKS
Among this year’s top-drawer jazz DVDs, the Jazz Icons series of vintage concerts from the late ’50s to the ’70s, previously unavailable commercially, is highly recommended. Released by music archivists Reelin’ in the Years Productions, the DVDs capture in full-concert action nine jazz legends: Thelonious Monk (”Live in ‘66,” with Ben Riley on drums), Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers,
Quincy Jones, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Buddy Rich.
Another significant historic offering comes bundled in “Weather Report: Forecast Tomorrow,” Columbia/Legacy’s three-CD boxed set of the jazz fusion band’s best tunes from its 1970-1985 life span. Included is a bonus two-hour DVD of the group — keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, electric bassist Jaco Pastorius, drummer Peter Erskine — performing live in 1978 in Offenbach, Germany, at the height of its artistic and commercial success.
One of the most impressive DVDs of contemporary fare is the Pat Metheny Group’s “The Way Up: Live” (Eagle Vision). The 90-minute concert was filmed in Seoul,
South Korea, during the band’s tour to support its Grammy Award-winning 2004 CD, “The Way Up.”
And, in a category all its own, there’s the entertaining documentary, “Brotherly Love,” an inside look at the music, life and times of the Heath Brothers: bassist Percy Heath (who died before the film’s completion), saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. Produced by Danny Scher and directed by Jesse Block, “Brotherly Love” premiered at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2005; has been screened at film festivals in various cities, including Miami and Barcelona, Spain; and was released on DVD October 17.
Reuters/Billboard
