More Lomax goodies

When I bought the Alan Lomax recording collection "Prison Songs Volume One: Murderous Home" from Rounder I also bought "Alan Lomax: Blues Songbook," a two-CD sampler of the legendary in-field recordings made by Lomax and his father John.

With cuts from Lead Belly and Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Jelly Roll Morton, Skip James, Blind Willie McTell and a host of other blues notables, it's a gem of a collection that I recommend highly. The sound is improved nicely and the extensive liner notes are an education.

This is not about jazz

Except, of course, that the blues is a key part of the foundation on which jazz is built. From reading the instructive book "Stagolee Shot Billy" by Cecil Brown this summer I got interested in the recordings made by Alan Lomax and his father John, which preserved, among other things, traditional work songs sung by prisoners, mostly black, in the Jim Crow South.

"Prison Songs Volume One: Murderous Home" from Rounder is an excellent sampler of recordings made at the notorious Parchman Farm in 1947-48. It's visceral music with nary an instrument other than the human voice but as gripping and emotive as anything I've ever heard. Won't be everybody's bottle of gin, but if you have a desire to probe the roots of the blues and of jazz, and to get a great version of "Stackerlee" as well, this disk is a winner.

A birthday greeting

A happy birthday to Sonny Rollins, the first jazz musician whose recordings I ever bought and my all-time favorite. The maestro is 75 years young today and still making magic with his tenor saxophone.

Ravel was jazzed

Incredible, you can get, and I did, a butt-kicking full version of Maurice Ravel's jazzy "Piano Concerto in G Major," with big-hitter Andrew Litton playing piano and directing, on Amazon for seven bucks. It's a Virgin Classics label disk that starts with Ravel's "Bolero," which dudes my age will forever associate with Bo Derek and swimming in the ocean, or something.

Honoring Duke

"In Honor of Duke" from Columbia is another good Marcus Roberts CD. Roberts doesn't honor Duke Ellington by playing his way through a slice of Ellington's songbook but rather by performing his own intricate, sophisticated set of Ellington-like arrangements.

One thing I find particularly cool about this mostly trio disk is the way Roberts makes drummer Jason Marsalis and bassist Roland Guerin coequal partners not simply the rhythm section. In fact, Marsalis is pretty much the leader in the opener "Ricktick Tick" as Guerin is on "Promises, Promises." Percussionist Antonio Sanchez adds a Latin tinge to a couple tracks.

Sad for the Big Easy

Jazz fans in particular have reason to be upset by the devastation in New Orleans and tonight I'm listening to "Authentic New Orleans Jazz Funeral," a cool disk I bought some time ago from Mardi Gras Records. It seemed appropriate. Here's a link as well to contribute to Red Cross relief efforts. And remember, the music of jazz funerals always ends on a decidedly upbeat note.

Rhapsodic

Herbie Hancock doesn't touch "Rhapsody in Blue" on his outstanding CD "Gershwin's World" (Verve) but pianist Marcus Roberts, along with the Lincoln Center Jazz and St. Luke's classical orchestras, gives it an epic 28-minute jazzed treatment on "Portraits in Blue" from Columbia/Sony Classical. This may be my favorite version of what I rate as one of the greatest pieces of any kind of music ever. I'm enthralled every time I play it.

The disk also includes an extended treatment (20 minutes) of James P. Johnson's rarely heard "Yamekraw" and a set of fairly abstract variations off Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." Roberts wouldn't be out of place on a classical stage, nor in a stride cutting contest.

I've heard Marcus Roberts, a Wynton Marsalis acolyte, in concert, too, and the guy is a) an extremely talented arranger and pianist and b) an intellect when it comes to jazz history, a tool he uses in creating and performing his music, and some would say limiting it. I disagree. "Portraits in Blue" is a great place to see for yourself.

It's Herbie's world

In conjunction with the 100th anniversary in 1998 of George Gershwin's birth, Herbie Hancock put out "Gershwin's World" (Verve) on which he had the temerity to update Gershwin. I say if anybody has the credentials, musicality and versatility to update Gershwin, it's Herbie Hancock and "Gershwin's World," which I bought this summer and gave its second listen the other day, is Exhibit A.

From the modernistic take on "It Ain't Necessarily So," to having Joni Mitchell Sing "The Man I Love," to rendering "St. Louis Blues" as a funky romp with Stevie Wonder playing the harmonica, scatting and singing (Joni and Stevie contribute to a not-your-father's version of "Summertime," too) this CD is a work of art.

And then there's Herbie's version of the second movement of "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G," which is in here because Ravel dug and used elements of Gershwin the way Gershwin employed jazz elements. A stunning disk (some people rate it Hancock's masterwork) with an all-star cast that includes James Carter, Chick Corea, Kenny Garrett and Wayne Shorter, among others.

He'll be 75 next month

To me "Autumn Nocturne" on "Don't Stop the Carnival" and the title track on "G-Man" are the gold standards for Sonny Rollins live performances on disk and I'm now going to add the newly released "Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert" to that list. All of it.

"Without a Song," the song and the CD, starts out conventionally and a little slowly, as I thought Mr. Rollins did at his concert in Chicago's Orchestra Hall in April. But that concert turned into one of the legendary Sonny Rollins performances and Mr. Rollins quickly picks it up and bends "Without a Song" to his will. Nice solos by Clifton Anderson on trombone and Stephen Scott on piano as well. (Scott wasn't at the pianoless Chicago concert, but I really like his playing and I've liked it in particular the times I heard him live and on disk with Sonny Rollins, with whom he seems to have a real affinity.)

Recorded at a concert in Boston days after Sept. 11, 2001, a calypso, as in Chicago where it was "St. Thomas," is one of the highlights, this time "Global Warming," which Mr. Rollins takes in all kinds of directions, even introducing strains of Italian folk music at one juncture. Anderson has a good solo (if imperfect, hey it's live) on this, too, as does percussionist Kimati Dinizulu.

Fine ballad performance and a stunning close on "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," which I'm not ashamed to say makes me teary every time I hear Sonny Rollins play it. It's the shortest song on the disk at nearly 11 minutes, meaning there's plenty of room for improvising throughout, and what more do you want in a performance by Mr. Rollins? I've heard him play "Why Was I Born?" plenty, but never quite like the up-tempo run here and, again, Anderson and Scott add excellent solos of their own to a rendition that borders on free jazz in places. "Where or When" is a glorious and unusual session closer.

When I read early raves, I wondered if it was just because it's been four years since we had a new Sonny Rollins CD. Nah, "Without a Song," issued by Milestone/Concord, is just that good. Mr. Rollins was clearly cooking, for a guy in his twenties let alone his seventies, and I think his band knew it and rose to the occasion.

Sound advice

"Sound," Roscoe Mitchell's Delmark label free jazz opus from 1966, which I purchased recently and gave its second listen the other day, is truth in advertising exemplified. What you get are instrumental sound explorations in an avant-garde jazz context by Mitchell on alto sax, clarinet, recorder and more; Lester Bowie on trumpet, flugelhorn and harmonica; and bassist Malachi Favors, who would join them in the groundbreaking Art Ensemble of Chicago; plus trombone, cello, tenor sax and drums.

The title track lasts 26 minutes and a reprise to end the disk 19. The amount of sonic stuff piled on in those 45 minutes is staggering. They make their instruments sound like everything from bagpipes to a baby's cries. I can barely take the mental stimulation involved in listening to it without needing to stop and rest my hyper-firing synapses. This is not about catchy tunes. If it sticks in your head, you've got one weird brain. You sure as heck won't be dancing to it. It's all about texture, color, placement, space. Think aural Picasso, and sometimes Dali. An essential disk if you're a free jazz fan.

Lit fuse

"Dding Dek," which opens guitarist Nguyen Le's CD "Bakida," combines rhythms of the Far East with fusion guitar work from Le, Paris born of Vietnamese parents, whose playing reminds me some of Mike Stern or Joe Satriani. Miles Davis would have been down with the tune and its sound in places also brings to mind, at least to mine, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer's brilliant ECM disk "Khmer," maybe the most interesting marriage of jazz and electronica I've heard.

"Dding Dek" pretty much sets the stage for what follows in a consistently creative set. "Bakida," which I like a lot, is lighter than "Khmer," for instance, and includes more conventional jazz elements, although not necessarily used conventionally. Take the title track, kind of a fusion ballad, or "Heaven," where the guitar licks are almost electric Spanish.

On the German Act label, High Note in the U.S., the disk is built around Le's trio (guitar, bass and drums/percussion) and brings in an international collection of artists for guest spots, two of my favorites, American saxophonist Chris Potter and Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, among them. More good jazz from Europe, and other points on the globe, on a disk which I think electric guitar fans in general would dig.

Sheets of (guitar) sound

Free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock's 1969 recording "Black Woman," just reissued on the Water label, opens with a title track that's kind of an acid spiritual and then goes into "Peanut," which makes me think of Albert Ayler without the saxophone. The "horn" here is the wordless vocalizing of Sharrock's then-wife Linda Sharrock, who moans, screeches and otherwise belts out abstracted instrumental sounds through most of the disk.

Meanwhile, Sharrock, stellar pianist Dave Burrell and the rest of the cast produce fine avant-garde jazz underneath and around Linda Sharrock's vocal forays with roots in traditional African music, the blues and Spanish guitar, among other influences I can discern. It's an interesting CD, if short at 31 minutes, although I have to say the voice stuff annoyed me in spots. The instrumental side, Sonny Sharrock's Coltrane-like sound sheets for guitar not the least, is nifty enough, however, that I suspect it will grow on me.

Theme noir

The theme song for the noirish interludes of my life has been the version of "St. James Infirmary" on the Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie Pablo CD (1977) "The Gifted Ones" thanks to my buddy Carl Abernathy, who introduced me to the disk and whose literate rock, blues and jazz blog I recommend. I was disconcerted the other day to read a review of this CD that bad rapped it. I think it's an excellent disk and Ray Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums to round out the quartet certainly don't hurt.

Give me a Woody

If Woody Shaw had played in the '50s and '60s instead of the '70s and '80s he would be Lee Morgan, remembered as a giant, his recordings plentiful and available. I believe Shaw's "Rosewood" is essential for anyone building a semi serious jazz collection.

So I didn't have to think hard about buying Columbia's new reissue of "Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard," which Shaw recorded with the core of his "Rosewood" band about a year later and at the height of his powers. Except for 17 minutes of McCoy Tyner's "Blue for Ball," the program is all hard-bop compositions from Shaw and bandmates Onaje Allan Gumbs (piano), Clint Houston (bass) and Victor Lewis (drums). Nothing clocks in under eight minutes, leaving lots of room for consistently excellent improvisation. Saxophonist Carter Jefferson doesn't contribute a composition, but his Sam Rivers-like playing was a revelation to me. I'm only sorry he led exactly one session and it's unavailable.

Great liner notes from Shaw's son Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, trombonist Steve Turre, who played with Shaw, although not on this session, and producer Michael Cuscuna, who must have done a great job of recording in the first place because the sound is studio quality. This and "Rosewood" make a great Woody Shaw twofer.

Rave for Rava

Paolo Fresu gets some of his kung fu from trumpeter Enrico Rava, a contemporary of Tomasz Stanko and the dean of an impressive body of Italian jazz musicians, which rivals the Scandinavians' in my opinion.

I bought Rava's "Live at Birdland Neuburg" from the good folks at Indie Jazz this month and it's a keeper. Rava with a young German quartet plays "My Funny Valentine" more as affirming anthem than soulful ballad, certainly not as the heart string-plucking piece, say, Chet Baker makes of it. "You Don't Know What Love Is" is rendered as an avant-garde vamp with a reggae back beat. In contrast to the original, they take a group improvisation-oriented approach to Sonny Rollins' "East Broadway Rundown," which you don't even hear people trying to play much, probably because Mr. Rollins set such a high standard.

I'm thinking of making "Certi Angoli Secreti," one of three Rava compositions on the disk, the theme song for those noirish interludes of my life. Outstanding stuff.

In a Polish way

I think I first heard the name Tomasz Stanko from former boss, jazz fan and good guy John Rumbach at The Herald in Jasper, Ind., and I recently picked up his CD "Suspended Night" from ECM. (Stanko's, Rumbach doesn't have a CD out that I know of.)

The CD started out reminding me of Miles Davis in his second great quintet. (See "In a Silent Way" and compare the ethereal licks and the use of space.) But Stanko is really more like Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, whom I first heard, and was quite impressed by, at the Duc des Lombards, a wonderful jazz club in Paris. (Stanko, from Poland, has been around a lot longer so maybe Fresu actually sounds like him.) You could toss in a little Lester Bowie as well. In any event, I can see why Stanko's received a lot of international attention in recent years. Quite a fine, atmospheric disk.

Bowie's no pretender

Lester Bowie always seems to me like he had a good time making his recordings and "The Great Pretender," a 1981 ECM disk I bought this summer, is a case in point. Besides the nearly 17 enjoyable minutes of the title track, culled from the '50s pop hit by the Platters, he and what's mostly a quartet also make hay with "It's Howdy Doody Time."

Except for "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain," the other songs are Bowie's. Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett and gospel singer Fontella Bass join the ensemble for "The Great Pretender," which, like the rest of the program, is rendered in avant-garde jazz terms with a variety of styles (from New Orleans marching bands to Motown) worked into the mix. The eerie, abstract "Oh, How the Ghost Sings" won't be everybody's cup of tea, but the rest of it's pretty much like the opener, a good time.

Another Freeman

If Ben Webster and James Carter got mixed up in the transporter device that goes haywire in "The Fly," either version, you would get Von Freeman. Big soulful sound. No compunction about probing the boundaries of tradition, or stepping over now and then. I like his last CD "The Great Divide" on the Koch label.

Two other Von Freeman disks that float my boat: the Delmark label "You Talkin' to Me?" with Frank Catalano, a Freeman protege, and "Lockin' Horns" with Willis "Gator" Jackson, which I got from the defunct 32 Jazz label. Freeman and Jackson play together on two songs on the latter and have two songs each individually in an organ quartet with Carl Wilson on the B-3 and Joe Jones doing some pretty fine guitar playing. Jackson's version of "The Man I Love" is absolutely classic.

Chico is the man

"The Outside Within" from saxophonist Chico Freeman starts with the bluesy sounding "The Search," which made me think of Chico's dad Von Freeman, the venerable Chicago tenor player. That's about it for daddy. Three free jazz romps, including the 19-minute "Undercurrent," follow with the younger Freeman blowing more like Pharoah Sanders or Sam Rivers, in whose avant-garde big band Chico played. Drummer Jack DeJohnette, John Hicks on piano and Cecil McBee on bass, guys who seem to me to be able to play just about any style imaginable, may be the perfect rhythm crew for this and get in some good licks of their own. Nice disk from the India Navigation label.

Two to tango

If Astor Piazzolla used elements of jazz to modernize tango music, Argentine musician Dino Saluzzi has gone the next step and created what I'd call, for lack of a better label, tango jazz. His last two CDs for ECM, including this year's "Senderos," offer contrasting looks at what he does.

"Responsorium" has Saluzzi on bandoneon, Swede Palle Danielsson on bass and guitarist Jose Maria Saluzzi, Dino's son, playing what's essentially adventurous trio jazz tango style.

"Senderos" has Dino Saluzzi playing only with percussionist Jon Christensen. It's heavily improvised, kind of free tango jazz. I first listened to this on a cloudy, drizzling Sunday afternoon and it was a perfect fit. Not toe-tappin' bop by any means, but I think both disks will remain interesting through repeated listenings because the music is quite intricate.

Tango time

Several years ago, all I could have told you about tango music was that Gomez and Morticia Adams used to dance to it. But I've since heard jazz musicians doing interesting things with the form, "Tengo Tango" on Cannonball Adderley's "Nippon Soul," for example, or "Coral" on Dawn Clement's wonderful CD "Hush."

It was "Hush" that prompted me to look up tango master Astor Piazzolla and to buy his seminal recording "Tango: Zero Hour." Piazzolla is known for modernizing tango, an Argentine folk music, in part by infusing it with elements of jazz and there's a lot here for jazz fans, even avant-garde jazz fans, to enjoy.

Although it isn't jazz per se, it's not far in places from stuff by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, James Carter, Jenny Scheinman, Dave Douglas and other people who have used European- and Latin-style folk music elements in jazz. Piazzolla plays the bandoneon, the chief instrument of tango, in a quintet with a violin, piano, guitar and bass. Great music and a nice horizon expander.

Doc rocked

My recent foray back into Ken Burns' "Jazz" also prompted me to look for something from Doc Cheatham, who gets face time in the series talking about jazz history in general and Louis Armstrong, for whom he sometimes subbed, in particular. I picked "Swinging Down in New Orleans" on the Jazzology label. As you could guess, it's dominated by classic New Orleans-style jazz. His trumpet playing is good for anyone on songs like "When I Grow to Old to Dream" and frigging amazing for a guy 88 years young at the time. He wouldn't win any singing prizes, but it's fun when he does sing, as on "I Want a Little Girl." A delightful CD.

Too hip for Bolton

I think the Paquito D'Rivera-led United Nations Jazz Orchestra must have been inspired when it recorded "A Night in Englewood" in 1993 as a tribute to the orchestra's cofounder Dizzy Gillespie, who had died that January. Everybody in what is unabashedly a Latin big band for this set plays extremely well, alto saxophonist D'Rivera not the least. You get sambas, bossas, a tango blues and lots of good jazz driven by Afro-Cuban rhythms. Somewhere, Dizzy was smiling.

I've wanted this CD for awhile and even had a copy of it in my hand once but, alas, put it back. I hadn't been able to find it since and then was surprised when it popped up at our Borders last week. Thanks to the Miami-based Pimienta Records label for reissuing it.

Not knockin' Norah

Which isn't to say I'm bad rapping Norah Jones, even if she isn't Lizz Wright. I really like Jones's hit CD "Come Away With Me," as I was reminded when "Turn Me On" came up on the Shuffle during this morning's walk and it did.

All Wright

I've seen comparisons of Lizz Wright to Norah Jones, I guess because some people see the same star potential. But I've heard Norah Jones and Lizz Wright and Lizz Wright is no Norah Jones. Wright's is a more rangy, powerful voice and heavier at the deep end in the Nina Simone or Cassandra Wilson vein, albeit all her own. I have no problem seeing her as the featured soloist in a boffo gospel choir.

I'm unable to decide whether to call her new CD "Dreaming Wide Awake" a blues or a jazz or a soul disk and it doesn't matter because it's a good one however you want to classify it. Cool jazzed covers of Neil Young's "Old Man" and of "Get Together." The accompaniment is sparse, so Wright's voice had to carry the proceedings, which she does no problem.

He was bad, man

"Stagolee Shot Billy" by Cecil Brown is an interesting book that traces the history of the blues song from a real-life incident in late-1800s St. Louis to its impact on rap today with lots of discussion about its cultural context and meaning. The latter got a tad too acacdemic for me in places but not to the point of being painful.

While reading the book, I've been collecting versions of the song from emusic and other places. But my favorite versions are on CDs I already owned: "Stack 'O Lee" on the Mississippi John Hurt CD "Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings" from Columbia and "Stack-O-Lee" on the Champion Jack Dupree CD "Blues from the Gutter" from Atantic. I also like Sidney Bechet's instrumental version "Old Stack 'O Lee Blues" from Blue Note's "The Best of Sidney Bechet," available as a single at the iTunes Music Store.

Mingus essentials

Five Charles Mingus CDs I wouldn't want to be stranded on a desert island without:

"The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady," Impulse. I think it's the height of Mingus, and probably one of the greatest jazz recordings, on par compositionally and musically with an Ellington suite. If you're going to own one Mingus CD, this is it.

"Blues & Roots," Rhino. It drives so hard and kicks so much butt that I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't outlawed it. If you're going to own two Mingus CDs, this is the other one.

"The Great Concert of Charles Mingus," Verve. Two disks of Mingus live in Paris with Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan and Jaki Byard. Brilliant. The salute to Johnny Coles's trumpet is priceless.

"Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus," Atlantic. My buddy Carl Abernathy (visit his rock, blues and jazz blog) will tell you there's no better version of "Haitian Fight Song," titled "II B.S." here, and he might be right. I'm taking it for the Mingus version of Ellington's "Mood Indigo."

"Mingus Ah Um," Columbia. If "Black Saint" isn't the height of Mingus, this is. I wouldn't go anywhere without this version of "Better Get It in Your Soul."

If I could sneak in another, it would be "The Clown," Atlantic, for the long-form version of "Haitian Fight Song" and for the title track, which reminds me of a Harry Chapin story song, Mingus style.

Mingus vision

I came across this passage in the notes section of a book I finished over the weekend, "Stagolee Shot Billy" by Cecil Brown, which is about the traditional blues song. It struck me as a great characterization of some reasons I like jazz in general and Charles Mingus in particular.

"Jazz values improvisations, personal vision and assault on the conventional modes of musical expression, but it will not allow the individual to forget what he owes to tradition, not the tradition of a great man but the legacy shaped by a whole people."

In the best of Mingus you hear field hollers, the blues, the church, Ragtime, New Orleans, big band swing, Ellingtonia, Latin rhythms and more, laced with scintillating improvisation, certainly with a strong, almost overwhelming sometimes, personal vision, and a big fist in the face of convention. You could say this about almost any of the great jazz musicians, it seems to me, from Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton to Branford Marsalis and James Carter, not to mention Monk, Miles, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Duke, Pops...

Mingus reloaded

"East Coasting," the Charles Mingus Bethlehem recording from 1957 just reissued by Shout! Factory, features a sextet that often sounds like a big band including Mingus stalwarts Danny Richmond on drums and Jimmy Knepper, who played with a lot of big bands, on trombone. The pianist is a young Bill Evans, before Miles, "Kind of Blue" and his own career as a leader. Other than "Memories of You," everything is a Mingus composition, a lot of them very bluesy. The playing is more conventional than, say, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady," but it's excellent and pushes the envelope in places. The redone sound is great. Then again, I'd say just about anything by Mingus is great so decide for yourself.

Big Banding, part 2

Here's another in my hunt for good one-disk samplers covering a selection of classic big bands from the '20s, '30s and '40s with decent sound, representative material and a reasonable price.

"Glenn Miller/Pure Gold" by way of RCA and BMG. A 10-track CD with every song that makes you think Glenn Miller, "In the Mood," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "American Patrol," et al, and fabulous sound. I got it for $11.98 on Amazon.

Funny story. At the back end of my 40s, I don't often feel like the kid in the crowd anymore. There's still a Glenn Miller Orchestra touring and a couple years ago they stopped at the Virginia Theater here, a marvelous old movie palace that's been converted to a classic film and events venue, including Urbana native Roger Ebert's annual Overlooked Film Festival. This is a five-minute stroll from my house so I went. The music was great. The audience was sizable and enthusiastic. And I was the youngest person there pretty much by half. All in all a wonderful evening.

Follow the links to my suggestions for disks featuring the bands of Jay McShann or Claude Thornhill or Chick Webb or Benny Goodman or Fletcher Henderson or Billy Eckstine or Earl Hines or Andy Kirk.

More than blue

OK, Doug Wamble's singing on "Bluestate" is bluesy, gospely and makes me think of a weird combination of Bruce Hornsby and Nina Simone. His guitar playing is somewhere on the road between Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery and not that far from Bill Frisell's neighborhood in spots. And the music he makes with pianist Roy Dunlap, bassist Jeff Hanley and drummer Peter Miles, all of whom are really good, is adventurous jazz tending toward the avant-garde with Latin, Middle Eastern and other tinges tossed in for good measure.

All this on diverse, consistently interesting material that comes by way of Wamble, Dunlap, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and the church via Mahalia Jackson and unfolds with lots of nifty surprises along the way. Another gem from Marsalis Music. Big boss Branford Marsalis contributes a gnarly guest tenor solo on "Rockin' Jerusalem."

Stan and Benny clicked

Another good Dragon label disk I bought recently, "At the Click 1948," features the great Swedish clarinetist Ake "Stan" Hasselgard dueting with Benny Goodman in a major-league septet that has Wardell Gray on tenor sax, Teddy Wilson on piano and Billy Bauer on guitar. It's fine small-group swing and very beboppy in places.

The sound is decent for a CD made from broadcast recordings, the only thing available since this group never recorded in a studio. Hasselgard, just 26, would be dead a few months later, killed in a car crash outside Decatur, Illinois (about 50 miles west of where I live) while driving to meet Goodman in California.

Bernt and Arne

Like Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, Bernt Rosengren has shifted to playing more, but not quite, conventionally in his later years, which gives you a better perspective on just how skilled all three of these guys are.

"Face to Face" from Stockholm's Dragon label pairs Rosengren on tenor sax and flute with the great Swedish alto saxophonist and clarinetist Arne Domnerus in a quintet including outstanding pianist Jan Lundgren. It's a bunch of well-done straight-ahead playing with improvised flourishes that keep things interesting.

Reminds me of an Evidence CD I have with Phil Woods on alto and Lew Tabackin on tenor in a quintet with Jimmy Rowles, not too creatively titled "Phil Woods/Lew Tabackin." I like both disks.

Coming attraction

I'm so excited. The previously unknown recording of Monk and Coltrane at Carnegie Hall in 1957 for a Voice of America radio broadcast, which the Library of Congress discovered this year, is going to get released on CD in October or November. It will sure as heck be on my must-buy list.

Bernt offering

I don't know why the Swedes became so good at jazz. Maybe it's the intensity of their fans. I never saw an audience as serious as when I went to a show at Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm. People were on the edge of their seats, which they took early, and it was obvious that chitchat, ordering a drink or even clinking a glass were not appreciated while the music was in progress.

With audiences like that, a musician is advised to produce. Bernt Rosengren, one of the giants of Swedish jazz, and his quartet surely do on a two-CD set I just acquired from the wonderful Swedish Ayler label. I think it's bound to become one of my favorite free jazz titles.

"Free Jam" is from recordings made in 1972 at improvisational woodshedding sessions in a Stockholm warehouse that was kind of like Minton's for Swedish free jazz players in the early '70s. The CD is listed under South African trumpeter Mongezi Feza's name.

Feza, of whom recordings are rare, is an attraction. He's amazingly fast and evidently wired to play like this. But Rosengren, who plays saxes, flute and piano, and his mates are fantastic as well. The sound is very good, much better than any of the rare Minton's stuff I've heard. If you like things like Coltrane's "Ascension," Archie Shepp's "Fire Music," or Pharoah Sanders' "Karma," you'll probably like this. I do, and Swedish jazz, too.

Sonny reflections

I picked up what I thought was the latest JazzTimes on Friday when I saw Sonny Rollins on the cover and now I see it's actually the June issue. Our Barnes & Noble must be behind. Or they had a lot of leftovers they're trying to push.

In any event, there's a nice interview, which I read today, with Mr. Rollins as he approaches his 75th birthday in September and the release this month (supposed to be Aug. 30) of a new CD from a live performance in Boston days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with Joshua Redman as the interviewer and a bunch of people talking about how Mr. Rollins has affected their music and lives.

One thing I learned from the package particulaly interested me. He now has all his concerts recorded. I hope the Boston disk won't be the last. I heard him give a stunning performance in Chicago in April and I would love a CD of that.

More great Sonny sides where he remakes popular tunes: "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" on "The Sound of Sonny" and "Someone to Watch over Me" on "Here's to the People." The latter may be my all-time favorite Sonny Rollins ballad performance.

Monday blues

When Cassandra Wilson sings "you don't know what love is until you know the meaning of the blues," I, for one, am tempted to buy it. I bought Wilson's "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" on sale for $9.99 anyway. I'm happy I did. Bluesy jazz or jazzy blues (What difference?) from a genre-straddling gal with a fine set of pipes, including two gutsy, improvised Robert Johnson covers. Me and the devil think it's sensual, sophisticated, soulful music to drink by.

Big Banding

I've been enjoying some modern large group jazz, like Bob Brookmeyer's "Get Well Soon," as I mentioned here recently. Then, I had to renew my library card and I noticed that my library had acquired Ken Burns' "Jazz" on DVD. I hadn't seen the series since it first aired so I decided to take another look and went through every episode over a period of a few weeks.

That, and the new stuff I'd been listening to, got me psyched to add some classic big band recordings to my collection, which has been pretty much limited, with a few exceptions, to Count Basie and Duke Ellington. My goal: find good disks covering a selection of other significant big bands from the '20s, '30s and '40s with decent sound, representative material and a reasonable price. I wasn't looking for anything like exhaustive box sets, just nice one-CD samplers.

First up, No. 187 in the EPM Jazz Archives series "Kansas City Bounce" covering various groups led by pianist Jay McShann from 1940-49. Get it because about the first third of the tracks feature a young alto saxophonist named Charlie Parker. But don't stop listening after Bird books. McShann ran a lot of top-flight crews and had some other significant players (Paul Quinichette and Ben Webster for two) and his groups had that wonderful blues-inflected Kansas City thing made famous by another guy out of K.C., fella name of Bill Basie.

Follow the links to my suggestions for disks featuring the bands of Follow the links to my suggestions for disks featuring the bands of Glenn Miller or Claude Thornhill or Chick Webb or Benny Goodman or Fletcher Henderson or Billy Eckstine or Earl Hines or Andy Kirk.

What a set of pipes!

Want a Rufus Harley CD? Who doesn't? Check out "The Pied Piper of Jazz" from Label M if you can find it. He plays with Sonny Stitt and Don Patterson on one track and does some decent soprano and tenor sax, plus flute, playing besides bagpiping. Personally, I think a guy who can argue something like a funky bossa nova out of the bagpipes deserves a hand.

Sonny magic

"There's No Business Like Show Business" on "Worktime" and "Mona Lisa" on "Sonny Rollins +3" are two other nifty reworkings of familiar tunes by Mr. Rollins. I also like "Just Once" on "Dancing in the Dark," which is a Sonny Rollins CD that should be better appreciated.

If you really want to hear something, try "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" on "The Cutting Edge," which Mr. Rollins duets with jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley. (Yes, there is such a thing as a jazz bagpiper, but only one that I know of.)

It's my song now

To me, Sonny Rollins taking a familiar song and recasting it for his own improvisational purposes is one of the great pleasures of life. (Check out "I'm an Old Cow Hand" on "Way Out West" or "Moritat," which is "Mack the Knife," on "Saxophone Colossus" for classic examples.)

So when Michael Wolff and company remake "St. Thomas," the calypso standard by Mr. Rollins, on "Dangerous Vision," my inclination is to like it. Add the same kind of pushing-the-envelope improvising on Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Nat Adderley's "Work Song," and more and you've got a CD that demands to be noticed. I've got to think Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo would dig what these guys do with their "Soul Sauce."

Interesting instrumental lineup as well. No horns, Wolff, who's done everything from back Cannonball Adderley to run the band for Arsenio Hall's show, on acoustic and Rhodes pianos, Brazilian percussion master Airto Moreira, and a bassist, a drummer and a tabla player, which is to say somebody (Badal Roy) on an Asian percussion instrument something like bongos. Hey, I didn't know what it was until I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Hawk meets Duke

"Rainbow Mist" from the Chicago-based Delmark label's Apollo series is another good Coleman Hawkins compilation. The title track is almost the equal of "Body and Soul."

I've got a lot of Hawk CDs, but my favorite is probably "Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins." Recorded in 1962 with an octet of the Duke, six of Ellington's guys (including Johnny Hodges on alto sax) and Hawkins, the liner notes say they just kind of showed up and started playing. I believe it, because at that point what the hell couldn't they play? Hawk sounds fabulous on this disk. It, the BMG/Victor Jazz "Body and Soul" and the above-mentioned "Rainbow Mist" would make for a nice little Hawkins collection.

Hawk soars

Coleman Hawkins playing "Body and Soul" came up on the Shuffle during my morning walk and I was struck, besides being awed as usual, by how those few minutes changed jazz saxophone playing forever. I have a version from 1939 and one from 1956 I like even better on a BMG/Victor Jazz compilation appropriately titled "Body and Soul," which is a good collection spanning '39 to '56. "My Blue Heaven" and "The Bean Stalks Again" also are highlights.

The organ combo lives

On the tracks where tenorman Tad Shull plays on Melvin Rhyne's B-3 trio and quartet disk "Tomorrow Yesterday Today" it reminds me of big John Patton with saxophonists such as Harold Vick (see "Along Came John") or of Hank Crawford and Jimmy McGriff. Excellent guitarist Peter Bernstein plays the Grant Green role, or maybe Wes Montomery, with whom Indianapolis native Rhyne played in the early '60s, besides backing B.B. King and various R&B notables. A nice new version of the classic organ jazz combos I adore.

Fats sings

If you want a collection where Fats Waller sings and otherwise entertains beyond the bounds of his stunning piano playing, plus plays a little organ, I like "The Very Best of Fats Waller" from Collector's Choice Music. The CD has 24 tracks running from 1927 to 1942 and covering just about any Waller highlight one could want. Joyful music.

New Bird and Diz

"Dizzy Gillespie Charlie Parker Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945," the new CD on the Uptown label from previously unknown acetate disk recordings of a concert at the dawn of bebop, is the best and most exciting live recording of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker I've ever heard. The sound is good and the presence of Don Byas on one of the tracks and Al Haig and Max Roach on most of them only makes it more priceless. I think this is better than the vaunted Massey Hall recording.

Cool CIMP tricks

Besides good music, CIMP CDs always seem to have nifty cover art and illuminating, even educational, liner notes. I've never seen such detailed explanations of the techniques employed in making a recording. Why I don't know, but getting this kind of material with a disk tickles me.

Smoked

Trumpeter Paul Smoker's "Standard Deviation" is another good CIMP CD I bought recently. The "standard" refers to the tunes a quartet with Smoker's horn, electric guitar, cello and drums plays. The "deviation" refers to what they do with standards such as "Beyond the Blue Horizon" and "Poinciana." And boy do they deviate. It took me a couple listens to warm up to this disk, but I now consider the version of "Stormy Weather" on it a free jazz classic.

CIMP's no wimp

I like buying CDs from the CIMP label (it stands for Creative Improvised Music Projects) because I know I'm going to get interesting, intricate, free-oriented jazz from excellent, if not especially famous, artists. Case in point "Avanti Galoppi" with drummer Lou Grassi leading a quartet including bassist Ken Filiano, Rob Brown on alto sax and Herb Robertson on trumpet, pocket trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn.

All of the compositions are original, memorable and clock in at or over 10 minutes, allowing these guys real space to play. They remind me of some of William Parker's small groups (see "O'Neal's Porch" and "Bob's Pink Cadillac") in places, and that's high praise from this quarter.

It's not over until...

The fat man plays. I debated for a long time which Fats Waller CD I wanted in my collection and finally settled on "Fats Waller: Piano Masterworks Vol. 1" from the Jazz Archives series of the French label EPM. I chose it because these early Waller recordings (1922, 1927 and mostly 1929) are all about piano playing with none of the singing and clowning that came later.

And what a piano player. If Art Tatum was god, then Thomas Waller was jesus. The version of "Ain't Misbehavin'" on this gave me goose bumps when I played it for the first time yesterday. Likewise the second of three versions of "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling." The disk would be a great addition even if you think you've already got Fats Waller covered.

Oldie but goodie

In "Trio Jeepy" from 1988, which I bought recently, you can tell Branford Marsalis is going to become the guy I think is the Coltrane of his era (in his inventiveness not necessarily his sound, although he's closer to Coltrane's sound on this disk than he is today, when his own sound is in full flower). The legendary Milt Hinton on bass and Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums only add to the goodness. Every cut is an improvisational treat. Fine stuff.

Sing strong

Nina Simone sang more like a man than some men, say the Bee Gees. Nothing wrong with singing like a man, however, if you do it well. Nina with her deep, powerful voice did. The Rhino label's Collectables series includes a disk combining the LPs "The Amazing Nina Simone" and "Nina Simone at Town Hall," the latter of which emphasizes her piano playing in spots. I recommend the CD as a varied collection of Nina Simone's music and a good value. Her versions of "Summertime" and "Fine and Mellow" sure don't sound like anybody else, especially anybody named Gibb.

Sax Barron

Bill Barron, pianist Kenny Barron's older brother, was an advanced, primarily tenor saxophonist who shifted his focus to jazz education, rather than recording, pretty early in his career. "Modern Windows Suite" is a nice Savoy label CD compilation of two Barron LPs from 1961, both with a young Kenny Barron and trumpeter Ted Curson accompanying on a lineup of Bill Barron compositions. If it reminds you somewhat of Mingus, no surprise. Both Bill Barron and Curson played with the force-of-nature bassist, composer and band leader. Fine avant-garde jazz rooted in but not bound by tradition.

Harry was here

Harry Chapin, who died in an auto accident in 1981, was doing the Live 8 thing at every one of his concerts long before the idea became a magnet for megastars and international media attention. His family and friends are still at it through World Hunger Year, the organization he helped found.

Chapin jazz

The other Chapin in my all-Chapin order was Thomas, no relation to Harry and Jen as far as I know, but one excellent jazz saxophonist, who died too young at 40 of leukemia. He plays alto and mezzo-soprano sax, and also flute, on "You Don't Know Me" and brings to mind Jackie McLean or a lighter version of James Carter. Tom Harrell plays trumpet on the disk, which I recommend highly.

Tales you win

When I ordered Jen Chapin's nice CD "Linger" from Amazon I decided to make it an all-Chapin lineup to get the free shipping. So I added Harry Chapin's (Jen's late father and the first musician whose stuff I bought regularly) "Heads & Tales," which I'd never replaced from LP days.

Harry didn't have many radio hits, except for "Cat's in the Cradle," "W*O*L*D" and to some extent "Taxi," a good version of which appears on this CD. His songs were mostly too long and oriented to the story or message rather than shlock lyrics and catchy tunes, which is fine by me. There are some of my favorites on "Heads & Tales," including "Dogtown," "Greyhound" and "Any Old Kind of Day." A Harry Chapin classic.

Linger over this

The other day my friend Carl Abernathy sent me a link to a story about the singer Jen Chapin, daughter of Harry Chapin, my old favorite who gets classified as a folk rocker but who was, more accurately, a musical story teller. A great one in my opinion. Check out his songs "A Better Place to Be," "Mr. Tanner," "The Sniper" and "Dogtown" for four examples.

Jen Chapin is kind of a jazzy bluesy folk rocker who does a little story telling of her own and makes me think of Madeline Peyroux if Madeline tended to sing more like Bonnie Raitt than Billie Holiday. That's based on "Linger," Chapin's most recent CD, which I like.

More Swedish goodness

Sweden produces a lot of great jazz and one Swedish musician I'm partial to is the multi-instrumentalist Magnus Lindgren, whose quartet CD "The Game" I bought on a whim in Stockholm. (Ironically, I got to hear him in person the same night, at the Nobel Prize banquet. No, I didn't win. They don't give a Nobel for beer drinking. I was covering the Nobels as a newspaper reporter.)

Lindgren plays tenor sax, bass clarinet and flute, alto flute and bass flute on this disk with a pianist, bassist and drummer in what is a tradition-rooted but pretty adventurous session often bordering on avant-garde. He reminds me of Coltrane in spots and Wayne Shorter in a lot of places. The majority of the songs are originals and the rest are interesting takes on standards such as "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" and "Caravan." This has become one of my favorite CDs.

Genius on board

I think the music you like is as deeply personal as anything about you, which is why sometimes you hear somebody and you just have a natural affinity for their playing. I knew the first time I heard James Carter's "Chasin' the Gypsy" that I was going to be awaiting, and buying, the guy's CDs from then on. To me, Carter is the younger lion Sonny Rollins to Branford Marsalis' Coltrane, possessed of a huge sound, even bigger talent and the improvisational skill to keep you constantly wondering where he might head next.

No surprise then that I've been listening to "Out of Nowhere," his new organ trio CD, which isn't strictly an organ trio CD, all day and think it's brilliant. Gerard Gibbs has a Dr. Lonnie Smith touch on the organ that compliments Carter well. As a bonus you get James "Blood" Ulmer, who is a near-perfect guitar player to pair with J.C., and a second big horn with the legendary Hamiet Bluiett behind it. Run, don't walk, to your nearest jazz CD vendor and buy this.

Here and also here are a couple other Carter CDs you should check out.

Big deals

Other than Duke Ellington and Count Basie, I generally haven't been that big a fan of big bands. But Dave Holland's big band CD "What Goes Around" in 2002 prompted me to reconsider and then a Nat Hentoff column turned me on to Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra, an all-gal group that kicks butt on its CD "Live in Concert."

I've already mentioned the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra's "Heart & Soul: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael" and Bob Brookmeyer's new big band disk "Get Well Soon."

My latest find is The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, whose CD "Groove Shop" makes me smile from start to finish. They remind me of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, whose classic "Presenting Joe Williams" is a must have.

Good oldies

Another after-1966 Sonny Rollins CD I enjoy is "Old Flames," recorded in 1993, which is pretty much a standards session with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums and arrangements by Jimmy Heath.

Mr. Rollins plays with a brass choir (flugelhorns, French horn, tuba and trombone) on two cuts, "Darn That Dream" and "Prelude to a Kiss." Not a lot of real lengthy improvisations, but some good shorter and mid-sized runs. This is about as close as it gets to a "tranquil" Sonny Rollins disk.

Phineas here

"Here is Phineas: The Piano Artistry of Phineas Newborn Jr." is the CD to start appreciating Calvin's brother with, and the great bassist and drummer Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke, too. Calvin Newborn also plays on some of the cuts. A super disk every semi serious jazz collector should own.

Born again

Calvin Newborn's "New Born" is pretty jazzy blues or pretty bluesy jazz, which is fitting for a guy whose late brother Phineas was one of the great jazz pianists, sadly unsung today, and who's own career, centered in Memphis, has been a mix of jazz and blues.

Nonetheless, Calvin Newborn is an excellent jazz guitarist who played with his brother, Earl Hines, Freddie Roach and Hank Crawford, among others. "New Born" includes a pianist, an organist and a sax player on various tracks, not to mention a trumpet, bass, drums and talking drums, and that may be my only complaint about it. All that accompaniment overwhelms Newborn's playing in spots. You get to hear him in ample fashion on songs like "Newborn Blues" and "Restorations," however, and the other players are well worth hearing as well, ultimately making this CD a winner.

Soweto's sweet

Soweto Kinch and friends rap on a few cuts on "Conversations With the Unseen" and I have to say I'm still looking for a good example of melding hip-hop and jazz. Some of what he does is interesting I think, including an interlude that kind of mixes rap and jazz singing. But I doubt it's very good rap and I know it's not great jazz.

What I also know is that Soweto Kinch is one heck of a fine young saxophone player, which is mostly what he does here. The guys with him (including Femi Temowo on guitar, Michael Olatuja on bass and Troy Miller on drums) are all excellent as well.

Buy "Conversations With the Unseen" for the instrumental jazz, which is among the most exciting I've heard on disk this year, and give Kinch credit for trying with the rapping. I'm betting that with his obvious musical talent he finds a way to make it work better in the future.

Sonny speaks

Here's a nice interview with Sonny Rollins ahead of his concert in Toronto. Personally, I think he's done a lot of good work since 1966, including "Here's to the People." Most recently "Global Warming," "Sonny Rollins +3" and "This is What I Do" were all outstanding.

Light not lite

Awhile back I suffered food poisoning from dinner at what used to be my favorite Mexican restaurant and as I reclined in my easy chair feeling awful the next morning I put on some quiet music to help get me through it, including Bill Evans on "Sunday Morning at the Village Vanguard" and Miles Davis with his "Sketches of Spain." It's a testament to the healing power of music that I felt much better, or at least to the power of music to give me something to concentrate on other than how bad I felt.

Next time I'm sick, I may put on "Translinear Light," Alice Coltrane's first recording in a quarter century. This is (with the exception of "This Train") mostly quiet, spiritual and peaceful music, which doesn't give up anything in intricacy for all of that. She's a very good pianist, organist and electronic keyboardist and her son Ravi, who accompanies on tenor and soprano saxophones, sounds a lot like his father here. (I intend that as a big compliment.)

With Charlie Haden along for the ride on bass and Jack DeJohnette and Jeff "Tain" Watts doing drum duty, it's an impressive CD and I understand why many reviewers raved about it when it came out last year. Like "A Love Supreme," it's not something I'll want to play every day, but I wouldn't want to be without it.

Hear Harold

"Did You See Harold Vick?" is another good track from the Sonny Rollins CD "This is What I Do" and it made me wonder who the heck Harold Vick was. Answer: "One of jazz's great unsung saxophonists," as allmusic puts it, a guy with a big, deep, rhythm and bluesy sound that reminds me some of "Fathead" Newman or "Lockjaw" Davis. Unfortunately, he started leading groups in the late '60s and early '70s and that's not what people wanted to hear then.

Flipping through disks at the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago not long ago I was thrilled to find CD reissues of two of his LPs, "Straight Up" with a quintet and sextet and "Watch What Happens" with a big band and quartet, both including Herbie Hancock on piano and Bob Cranshaw on bass. Makes me wish I had seen Harold Vick and glad I can still hear him.

Carter collectables

"Cosmopolite" and "Further Definitions" are a good Benny Carter twofer, the former with Oscar Peterson, the latter in a larger group setting with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Rouse on Tenors, Phil Woods as a second alto, Jimmy Garrison playing base and Jo Jones on drums, among others. Stunning.

I also like "The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 1" with god, in the form of Art Tatum, in the house, B.C. playing alongside and Louis Bellson keeping time on drums and, wisely, staying out of the way.

Moon me

"This is What I Do," the last (2000), and last great, and I hope not the last great, Sonny Rollins CD contains a great version of "Moon of Manakoora." In fact, pretty much everything on this disk is, well, great.

Benny briefly

The CD reissue of 1960's "Sax a la Carter!" holds a collection of up-tempo numbers that drip swing like I drip sweat on one of these lovely East Central Illinois June days with a 90 degree temperature and 90 percent humidity, and ballads that make me long for every love I've lost, even the bad ones, and my dead doggy, too.

All this on tunes none of which tops four minutes. Folks, that's genius, which Benny Carter assuredly was. Doesn't hurt that the quartet for the session includes Jimmy Rowles, Billie Holiday's favorite pianist, Mr. Walking Bass himself Leroy Vinnegar and on drums Mel Lewis, he of stellar big band with Thad Jones. An interesting song selection as well, mostly stuff Carter never recorded elsewhere, according to the liner notes, like the movie tune "Moon of Manakoora" and "Friendly Islands," a song Hawaiian Airlines used as its theme. This one goes to the desert island with me, Hawaii or otherwise.

San Francisco treat

I praised Jim Cifelli and his New York Nonet last week. Now let me toss some props to the Joshua Redman-led SFJazz Collective on the other coast. Its new CD is filled with well-executed free-leaning post bop (there are three Ornette Coleman songs and the originals are intended to celebrate Coleman's music).

Redman plays tenor and soprano saxes with a star-studded lineup including Bobby Hutcherson and Nicholas Payton, the should-be-better-known Renee Rosnes on piano and the young, super alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, whose new CD "Jibaro" I touted highly last month. I'm very impressed with how well this group, which also includes Josh Roseman on trombone, Robert Hurst on bass and Brian Blade on drums, plays together.

Dreamy

British saxophonist Denys Baptiste drew on the musical rhythms he found underlying the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech in crafting the four-part suite on "Let Freedom Ring!" The CD, which includes a little unobtrusive poetry, reminds me somewhat of the Wynton Marsalis Pulitzer Prize-winner "Blood on the Fields" or Archie Shepp's "Cry of My People," although it isn't as long as the former nor as sonically diverse as the later.

What it is mostly, is excellent large-ensemble playing (generally a dozen instruments) with music that ranges from jazzy orchestration to free jazz. Good stuff.

Strings attached

"Stuff Smith-Dizzy Gillespie-Oscar Peterson" is a good two-disk set with the great jazz violinist in great company. For Regina Carter CDs I like "Rhythms of the Heart" and "Paganini After a Dream," the later of which is really jazzy classical music, played partially on Paganini's famous violin "The Cannon" no less.

Another jazzed violin

When it comes to jazz violin, Regina Carter is the obvious descendent of Stuff Smith, maybe the swingingest violinist ever. Jenny Scheinman may not swing quite as hard and she's not possessed of that Motor City funk thing Detroit native Carter has.

But she's got Carter's ability to roll out classical chops where it works and she's better, I think, at the kind of intricate improvised runs I saw her engage in last month in Chicago as part of Bill Frisell's "Unspeakable" band. She's also adept at Jewish and Eastern European folk music forms.

You get all this on "Shalagaster," and Myra Melford on piano and harmonium as well, a new Scheinman-led CD I recommend.

More from Morris

Earlier, I heartily suggested the Byron Morris and Unity CD "Y2K." Mr. Morris, a multi-saxophonist and flutist who should be more widely recognized, has actually been leading versions of his band in Washington, D.C., since the 1970s, while putting bread on the table by day as an engineer. "Vibrations In Time" is a collection of some of Unity's '70s material. Accordingly, you get snatches of Eastern music and some singing that today we might call new agey, but mostly it's strong, modal post-bop stuff with nice playing by Morris and his partner Vincent McEwan on trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as the rest of the ensemble. Pleased to tout it.

Sorry Diana

I didn't intend to bad rap Diana Krall in the previous post. Although she's not really my cup of tea, I actually liked her last CD, "The Girl in the Other Room," quite a bit, in part I think because of the edge compositions by Krall and husband Elvis Costello give it.

But even an edgy Diana Krall mostly makes the piano tinkle. Dawn Clement sometimes makes it thunder, kind of like Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson.

Tickles my ivories

When a jazz pianist works Billy Strayhorn ("The Star-crossed Lovers") and Tom Waits ("Midnight Lullaby") tunes into a disk, not to mention five nifty compositions of her own, she's going to get my attention and Dawn Clement does on "Hush." All the better that she's quite a powerful piano player (kind of the anti-Diana Krall), although I might like to hear her working on the outside a little more overall, as she does on "Alone Together." Her playing on the Astor Piazzolla Tango "Coral" is stunning. Nice bass and drums work on this CD, Clement's first, by Geoff Cooke and Jose Martinez as well.

Nine to six

I thought the Jim Cifelli New York Nonet CD "Tunnel Vision" was one of the better bigger band disks I'd heard in awhile when I bought it last year. I would compare it favorably with Joe Lovano's nonet CDs "52nd Street Themes" and "On This Day...At the Vanguard."

A trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and arranger, Cifelli isn't as well known as Lovano, but he should be better known. Case in point his latest disk, "Groove Station," in which he moves easily from his post bop-oriented nonet to a funky, groovy soul jazz-leaning sextet that's more "Vibes from the Tribe" than "Birth of the Cool." Guitarist Dave Phelps and keyboardist Will Boulware do good work. "Old School" would be a good song to play those people who claim fusion never works. Both thumbs up.

The good Kenny G

"Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane" and "Standards of Language" are a good Kenny Garrett twofer, the former with more playing on the outside and the latter more inside, albeit it not entirely by any means.

emusic is jazzy

Kenny Garrett, who was fantastic himself, had a great group of younger players with him when I saw them at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis in February, which prompted me to look up the drummer Ronald Bruner, which led me to the CD "Young Jazz Giants," which makes me sorry these kids, as far as I can determine, have never recorded together again.

I actually downloaded the CD from emusic, a legal digital music service that I don't think gets enough attention and one with an extensive jazz collection, new and classic. Acceptable prices and sound quality with no copy protection. Check it out.

Latin on the side

Some of the best jazz being done today is Latin jazz and sometimes I worry that too much of the best jazz being done today is Latin jazz. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I don't want to hear jazz become dominated by the Latin sound anymore than I'd like jazz to be dominated by the New Orleans sound, bebop, etc. Jazz is a music of diversity and should always be so.

Which is why I am enamored of Miguel Zenon's "Jibaro," which is based on, but not dominated by, traditional music of his native Puerto Rico. Somewhere, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, craftsmen at complimenting their music with Latin sounds, are saying, "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about."

Guy's got major chops on the 'phone and big-time composition skills, too. Luis Perdomo on piano, Antonio Sanchez on drums and Hans Glawischnig on bass are memorable in the bargain. CD-of-the-year material.

Billie at her best

So I already said "Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection" is THE Lady Day set to get and, on second listen, after boffo renditions of "Strange Fruit," "Fine and Mellow" and "God Bless the Child" have rolled across my ears in succession I'm saying if you don't own this I'm sorry for you.

No bum's rush here

Bassist Steve Swallow has been an early, and later, ground breaker in free-oriented jazz (I mentioned some of his disks with Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley recently) and he continues to be on "L'histoire du Clochard: The Bum's Tale."

This CD of seven compositions by Swallow is one of the better meldings of traditional jazz, free jazz and classical music forms I've heard. It has an out-of-the-ordinary mix of instruments with Swallow on electric bass and a tenor sax (co-leader Ohad Talmor, who's outstanding), trumpet, clarinet, trombone and violin. It sounds like New Orleans in places, jazzy chamber music in others and here and there reminds me of Bill Frisell's "Unspeakable" and of "Sketches of Spain." Heady music that gets more interesting each time I listen.

Dust my Broom

"No Problem" is a good Sonny Rollins and Bobby Broom CD with Bobby Hutcherson on vibes and Tony Williams on drums as well. It's a fun session, almost ballad free and no real long Sonny solos but some OK shorter runs and nice ensemble playing. The only real drawback is the 36:33 total run time.

Not a classic, but I say you gotta love it whenever Mr. Rollins takes a Dolly Parton tune and has his way with it.

Deep blue fun

I caught guitarist Bobby Broom last month with Sonny Rollins at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, where Broom, who used to play with Mr. Rollins regularly, normally plies his trade.

He does that, among other places, in Chicago's Deep Blue Organ Trio with B-3 man Chris Foreman and Greg Rockingham on drums. If I said their CD "Deep Blue Bruise" reminded me of Jack McDuff and George Benson I wouldn't be too far off. It's a blues-inflected romp through some standards like "Willow Weep for Me" and a few unusual selections like "Rasberry Beret." You'll want to dance to it. Organ jazz is alive and well, thank goodness.

Kansas City here I come

Off to see my friend David Dewar get his doctoral hood at the University of Kansas, followed by drinking. I've got "Band Box Shuffle," two CDs of Bennie Moten recordings, "The Best of Early Basie" (there's some even earlier Count in the Moten collection since he started with Moten's band) and Lester Young "The Kansas City Sessions" lined up for the trip, among other things. Oops, better get some Bird in there. I'll go with "Confirmation: The Best of the Verve Years."

Free Jimmy

When you think of the advent of freely improvised jazz, you probably think of Coltrane, Ornette Coleman of course, Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler, among others. Less likely to come to mind is Jimmy Giuffre, but the former big band clarinetist really was a free jazz pioneer.

"Free Fall," a CD reissue of the third album cut by his trio with bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley, is a good example with a mix of improvisations by all three, Giuffre and Swallow in a duo and Giuffre alone ranging in length from two to 10 minutes. These guys broke up not long after, when they made 35 cents each at a gig.

Thankfully, they got back together 30 years later and did "Fly Away Little Bird," another good CD that shows they haven't stopped exploring. Giuffre even sings for the first time ever on the disk and while he's not exactly Louis Armstrong, it's a logical extension of Armstrong's singing in the same way that deftly executed instrumental free jazz is a logical extension of traditional instrumental jazz.

Ultimate Billie

I adore Billie Holiday and if you don't this planet isn't big enough for both of us and you have to get off. See ya.

Just kidding. But if you're someone who's been waiting for just the right Lady Day collection to come along before taking the plunge, the wait is over. "Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection" surveys her career on two CDs with excellent selections and excellently restored sound, plus a packed DVD of related material including rare film footage and a radio interview by, get this, a young Mike Wallace. Just a fantastic package, even at $40. (Be smart. Wait for a Border's e-mail coupon like me.)

The DVD also has film of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, whom Holiday credited as prime influences on her singing. The Bessie Smith entry is, in essence, an early music video. Fascinating.

Charlie flying

Columbia released a giant Charlie Christian box set a couple years ago, too big for me. But I like "Solo Flight," a two-CD set that has Christian with Benny Goodman, almost entirely in small groups, and playing early bebop at Minton's. Some of the sidemen include Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa (staples in Goodman's small groups), Count Basie, Lester Young, Monk, Don Byas and Dizzy Gillespie. The sound isn't perfect, but you can hear the music fine and I kind of enjoy the atmosphere created by the crowd noise in the background.

Guitar man

Interesting story about a new book on Charlie Christian set to come out this summer. Sounds like a definitive look at the seminal jazz guitarist, the first really to cut a swath on the electric guitar, although not the first jazz electric guitarist.

Swedish jazz team

I was in Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony (nah, I didn't win, again, but I had to write about some guys who did) when I went to the Jazz Club Fasching to hear George Russell conduct a Swedish big band playing his compositions.

Unfortunately, George got snowed in and couldn't make it over. But the band played his stuff anyway, and very well I might add, and the experience hooked me on saxophonist Lennart Aberg, the band's leader, and pianist Bobo Stenson, a couple big hitters in Swedish jazz. "Bobo Stenson/Lennart Aberg," a duo disk released in 2003, is a good way to get a dose of both. I also like Aberg and Stenson with Don Cherry on "Dona Nostra."

And Apple is out of business

My buddy Carl Abernathy points out yet another jazz is dying column over at Cahl's Juke Joint.

Personally, I think the column's author has missed more than one point. Jazz musicians, except for a few big hitters at any given time, have almost always had to labor to make a decent living. The big band era, when there were plenty of jobs to fill, might have been the one exception.

Still, I'd venture to say there's more good jazz being produced by young players (and some older ones) now than at any time since the early 1960s, certainly more than at any time in the past 25 years. (All those jazz musicians who had to become jazz educators to eat have had an impact, and that's a good thing.)

There's also significant demand for jazz, and lots of clubs, all over Europe and in places like Japan, so I wouldn't focus on the U.S market alone. It may have started as America's music, but it's the world's now.

Moreover, the industry sells about $11 billion worth of music total in the U.S. annually (USA Today). That's $330 million in jazz sales at 3 percent of the market. You should be able to support a whole lot of musicians on that, if they're getting the money they deserve. Which is the real issue.

Afterlife band just got better

A belated so long to Stan Levey, who died last month but for some reason only made the New York Times today. I've been listening to Levey drumming all weekend on my Bird binge. He played behind Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in their primes and was even Parker's roommate for awhile. There's a documentary on Levey's life I'd like to see.

The one in Stockholm

When I had the good folks at Cadence send me "The Music of Ernie Krivda" and the "Henry Grimes Trio Live at the Kerava Jazz Festival," my jazz CD of the year so far, I also had them send along "SURD, Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe," which, while it may sound like it's down almost any American street, is actually in Stockholm, the one in Sweden.

Haven't been there. Have been to Jazz Club Fasching in Stockholm and I can tell you from the experience the Swedes take their jazz seriously. No surprise then that David Stackenas, guitar, Fredrik Nordstrom, saxes, Filip Augustson, bass, and Thomas Stronen, drums, who make up SURD, put on a really fine display of free-oriented improvisational jazz with a touch of fusion here and there. A disk I'm certainly happy to have.

Bird still lives

In the movie "Pulp Fiction" there's this scene where the Uma Thurman character snorts, I assume, some really good cocaine in the women's bathroom at a restaurant and exclaims: "I said God damn!"

Now this is not the most comfortable movie scene to be relating in a discussion of Charlie Parker CDs, for obvious reasons, but it came to mind when, after my Louis Armstrong jag last week, I went on a Bird binge and did the first two disks of the "Complete Savoy Live Performances: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950," both disks of "The Legendary Dial Masters" and "Charlie Parker with Strings, The Master Takes." Because more than once as I was listening, I thought: "I said God damn!"

If you don't get it, you need to listen for that sax, isolate it and pay attention to what the man does. It's simply amazing, which is why the guy's a legend, and these are three good and varied collections on which to hear it. For a one-set alternative, try "Yardbird Suite."

Full Cleveland

Frankly, I don't remember how "The Music of Ernie Krivda" got on my to-buy list, but a few weeks ago I decided to run it down, which took me to the Cadence Web site, where I finally found and bought it.

I'm glad I did. Great music, playing and composing, he wrote all the songs, from a tenor saxophonist who deserves much wider recognition than his Cleveland home base. The CD is essentially adventurous hard bop with a big band sound despite coming from a "mere" sextet. The young trumpet, piano, bass and drums players, some Krivda's students, he has with him are great and so is the older guitarist Bob Fraser, another Cleveland jazz vet. This rates with anything I've heard lately. "Frankie's on the Floor," dedicated to dancing legend Frankie Manning, is toe-tappin' goodness and "A Winter's Waltz" is balladry at its best.

This crow is good

I put my nose in the air when my buddy Carl Abernathy, like me a B-3 fanatic, told me to get Dr. Lonnie Smith's "Boogaloo to Beck," then bought it for me when I dragged my feet. I mean how good could covers of songs by a rock guy I don't like, and who they make fun of on "The Simpsons," be?

Oops, turns out good enough that I'm in mild shock at just how good it is. You get David "Fathead" Newman on sax, too.

Also, I think Dr. Lonnie is actually getting better with age. I liked him in "Live at the Club Mozambique" (1970), but he's even more smokin' on "Boogaloo..." (2003) and "Too Damn Hot" (2004).

I'm all for them

I picked up the second Joe Lovano and Hank Jones CD "Joyous Encounter" today and I may have to rethink not buying the first one, "I'm All for You." These guys really do play well together.

I avoided CD No. 1 because most reviews characterized it as all ballads and while I like a good ballad on occasion I tend not to get great value out of all-ballad CDs. Even Coltrane's "Ballads" sits for a long time between listenings.

When Lovano and Jones, with George Mraz on bass and Paul Motian drumming, started with a very ballady sounding "Autumn in New York," I got worried. But they picked it up midway through the song and they keep it fairly lively for much of the rest of the disk save for a couple lovely ballad side trips, such as "A Child is Born." Lovano's playing is near avant-garde in places and there are snatches where he reminds me of Archie Shepp. Hank Jones should bottle and sell whatever it is that allows a guy who will be 87 in July to keep playing with as much power as he shows on Coltrane's "Crescent."

Decisions, decisions

I wonder how how this guy with a massive old blues and jazz record collection decides what to listen to every day.

In the future, some reporter will be writing a story like this about my friend Carl Abernathy and his CD collection, heh, heh, heh.

Genius in brief

Another thought I had on the listening-to-Louis jag this week. I often tell people it's much harder to write a short story than a long one, or rather to write an accurate, literate short story. Now mind you, I love long improvisational flights of jazz soloing. (See "Chasin' the Trane" on Coltrane's "Live at the Village Vanguard," or pretty much anything by Sonny Rollins from the early 1950s to present). But Mr. Armstrong could get a powerful lot into short hops barely lasting a couple minutes, if that.