In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

Sax Stuff

This weeks show featured some hot sax playing by jazz artists, new and old. Our featured artist is Mike DiRubbo, an alto player with roots in the Connecticut area, but now an accomplished player in the NYC scene. Chronos, his seventh album, is an organ trio sound that rocks, grooves and swings as you will hear in this show. I highly recommend this CD. That one is followed by the great Art Pepper in his Village Vanguard performance a few years before passing featuring a quartet that included Elvin Jones. Stacy Dillard is a young tenor sax player with his first CD recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club. We finish with a Joe Lovano find of one of his first CD's as a leader with a great quintet. We hear Joe in a gorgeous piano duet followed by the full quintet. Hope you dig.

Featured Album

Chronos on amazon.com or

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
Rituals ~ Mike DiRubbo ~ Chronos
Eight For Elvin ~ Mike DiRubbo ~ Chronos
The Trip ~ Art Pepper ~ Saturday Night at the Village Vanguard
Stizzozo ~ Stacy Dillard ~ One
Ageless ~ Stacy Dillard ~ One
Duke Ellington's Sound of Love ~ Joe Lovano Quintet ~ Village Rhythm
Sleepy Giant ~ Joe Lovano Quintet ~ Village Rhythm

Seasons

First and foremost on everyones mind is this harsh Winter. We pay respect to the seasons with tonights playlist. Starting with the Marsalis rendition of Winter Wonderland. Wynton's version of this classic tune conveys the wonder and beauty of the snowy landscape around us. Gil Scott Heron's portrays a darker political side of Winter in America. Zappa makes light of the yellow snow in his inimitable way. The next set makes us look forward to Spring. The title of Eric Alexander's piece says it all with You Must Believe in Spring. That is followed by two great trumpeters, Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown's tribute to Springtime. Joshua Redman does an uptempo swinging version of Summertime and we go the full cycle of seasons with Joe Lovano's beautiful ballad Autumn in New York. We bring it all together with Brian Blade and the Fellowship doing Blade's epic Season of Changes. The show concludes with UCONN's own jazz director Earl MacDonald from his great album of modern arrangements for large ensembles, Mr. Sunshine.

Featured Album

Season Of Changes on amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
Winter Wonderland ~ Wynton Marsalis ~ A Jazzy Wonderland
Winter in America ~ Gil Scott Heron ~ The First Minute of a New Day
Don't Eat the Yellow Snow ~ Frank Zappa ~ Apostrophe
You Must Believe in Spring ~ Eric Alexander ~ Revival of the Fittest
Up Jumped Spring ~ Freddie Hubbard ~ Born to be Blue
Joy Spring ~ Clifford Brown & Max Roach ~ Joy Spring
Summertime ~ Joshua Redman ~ Timeless Tales (For Changing Times)
Autumn in New York ~ Joe Lovano ~ Joyous Encounter
Season of Changes ~ Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band ~ Season of Changes
Mr. Sunshine ~ Earl MacDonald ~ Re:Visions

New England Winter

The temperatures in New England are hovering in the single digits, snow is piled high and there doesn't seem to be relief in sight. So I can't think of anything much better than hanging out at home and listening to a great jazz podcast. This one starts with some brilliant playing from John Scofield and his quintet including Brad Mehldau and Kenny Garrett. Next is a little known gem from Herbie Hancock. That is followed by a pair from Noah Preminger's new album Before the Rain. This is an album of haunting melodies and exploration from one of the most promising young tenor players on the free jazz scene. See my complete review of this album here. Noah is followed by a couple of great tracks from Keith Jarrett and Ravi Coltrane. The program ends with a classic from Alice Coltrane.

Featured Album - CD Review here

Before The Rain on amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
Do I Crazy ~ John Scofield ~ Works for Me
Tell Me a Bedtime Story ~ Herbie Hancock ~ Fat Albert Rotunda
What Goes Up Must Come Down ~ Myron Waldon ~ Momentum
K ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before the Rain
November ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before the Rain
Everything the Lives, Laments ~ Keith Jarrett ~ Mysteries
Someday My Prince Will Come ~ Keith Jarrett ~ Up For It
Shine ~ Ravi Coltrane ~ Blending Times
For Turiya ~ Ravi Coltrane ~ Blending Times
Journey In Satchidananda ~ Alice Coltrane ~ Journey In Satchidananda

The Kitchen Sink

There is no theme, not one artist or album featured. There is new music, old music, and some classic jazz in this podcast. You will get a taste of some avant-garde jazz, straight ahead hard bop and even some sweet vocals. This is the kitchen sink of jazz in this podcast. For the last few weeks I have been playing some tunes from a fine new CD from Jane Ira Bloom, so I'll place the image and a link to that CD here.

Featured Album

Wingwalker on amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
No Turning Back ~ Sharel Cassity ~ Relentless
Live Sports ~ Jane Ira Bloom ~ Wingwalker
How High the Moon ~ Dana Lauren ~ Stairway to the Stars
Abreaction ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before the Rain
Dew Point ~ George Schuller's Circle Wide ~ Like Before, Somewhat After
Bird Calls ~ Charles Mingus ~ Mingus Ah Um
Boogie Stop Shuffle ~ Chris Potter ~ Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard
Ras Abu-Galum ~ Omer Avital ~ The Ancient Art of Giving
From All Angles ~ Albert Rivera ~ Inner Peace

A Slow and Mellow Set

This is a fill-in for another jazz show on WHUS. Since my regular show was mostly pre-empted for sports broadcasting, its a good thing I recorded this one. It turned out to be a very mellow show, but one that features some of the best artists and their most recent releases. Charles Lloyd's latest, Mirror, plays it surprisingly straight though breaks out occasionally within this format. Kieth Jarrett lays down some gorgeous piano lines with full and able support from bass titan Charlie Haden. We hear a couple from young tenor lion Noah Preminger from his soon to be released CD which will be featured on next weeks show. This podcast ends with tracks from trumpeter Wallace Roney and Robert Glasper giving some Herbie love with their interpretation of Hancock compositions.

Featured Album

Mirror

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
Freud's Convertable ~ Jane Ira Bloom ~ Wingwalker
Mirror ~ Charles Lloyd Quartet ~ Mirror
The Water is Wide ~ Charles Lloyd Quartet ~ Mirror
One Day I'll Fly Away ~ Keith Jarrett - Charlie Haden ~ Jasmine
I'm Going to Laugh You Right Out of My Life ~ Keith Jarrett - Charlie Haden ~ Jasmine
Quickening ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before The Rain
Toy Dance ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before The Rain
I Have a Dream ~ Wallace Roney ~ If Only For One Night
Butterfly ~ Robert Glasper Experiment ~ Double Booked
All Matter ~ Robert Glasper Experiment ~ Double Booked

1111

This show was recorded New Years Day 2011. We brought in the New Year with a killin' party in Boston featuring Akashic Record, so they are our featured artists on this show. We look back on some great releases in 2010 from Ralph Peterson, Pat Bianchi, Greg Abate, and Sky Steele among others. There was a lot of great music made in 2010 and it will take a few shows to go through them all. I wish all of my listeners from around the world to a happy, healthy, peaceful 2011 filled with lots of great jazz music.

Partying with Akashic Record and friends on New Years Eve 2010/11. Here is another video from earlier in the evening, more of a jazz groove going on here.

Featured Album

New Days Ahead on amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
3 AM Run ~ Akashic Record ~ Theosophy
New Days Ahead ~ Akashic Record ~ New Dayz Ahead
The Moontrane ~ Ralph Peterson's Unity Project ~ Outer Reaches
Litha ~ Pat Bianchi ~ Back Home
Step Aside ~ Bob Reynolds
Y blues ~ Greg Abate ~ Wave Street Sessions
Punta Lullaby ~ Abraham Burton-Eric McPherson ~ Cause and Effect
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair ~ The Skye Steele Quintet ~ Late Bloomer

Jazzy Christmas 2010

Spiritual means different things to different people. I, for one, would not say I am a spiritual person in the conventional meaning of the word. Yet jazz fans regardless of faith recognize the spiritual nature of John Coltrane's voice on saxophone. Trane's spirituality had a major influence on modern jazz music that I tried to represent on this weeks Christmas day podcast. The show begins with some standard holiday fare from Greg Abate as he swings through The Christmas Song and Greensleeves. We follow with what I feel is the highlight of the podcast, Trane's Spiritual. Branford puts on his best Trane covering Resolution from A Love Supreme. Pharaoh rocks the house carrying on the tradition of Coltrane and then we settle down with tunes from early Chick Corea and finish up with a spiritual ballad, This Little Light of Mine, from Noah Baerman.

Featured Album

Afro Blue Impressions on amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
The Christmas Song ~ Greg Abate ~ It's Christmastime
Greensleeves ~ Greg Abate ~ It's Christmastime
Spiritual ~ John Coltrane ~ Afro Blue Impressions
A Love Supreme: Resolution ~ Branford Marsalis Quartet ~ Footsteps of our Fathers
You've Got To Have Freedom ~ Pharoah Sanders ~ Pharaoh Sanders Finest
Misty ~ Pharoah Sanders ~ Crescent With Love
Litha ~ Chick Corea ~ Inner Space
This Little Light of Mine ~ Noah Baerman ~ Soul Force

The Warmth of Jazz

Though I had no preconceived theme for this show, as I listen now, it has a certain warmth to all the selections that hopefully will bring some comfort to the cold winter nights ahead. Listen to the horn arrangements and the vibe from the vibraphones on Noah Bearman's Know Thyself (listen to the entire suite here). Noah Preminger's warm breathy tone on his tenor on his fine new release Before the Rain. Rez Abbasi, Rudresh, and Brian Blade all have that deep warming effect on our soul in their own unique ways. Veejay Iyer's rendition of Somewhere will warm your heart as it did mine. Keep warm, my friends, with these fine jazz tunes.

Featured Album

Know Thyself from CD Baby
Know Thyself from amazon.com

Track ~ Artist ~ Album
Know Thyself (excerpt) ~ Noah Baerman ~ Know Thyself
Abreaction ~ Noah Preminger ~ Before the Rain (pre-order)
Dream State ~ Rez Abbasi ~ Things to Come
Apti ~ Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition ~ Apti
Somewhere ~ Vijay Iyer Trio ~ Historicity
Monk/Trane ~ John Patitucci ~ Remembrance
Crooked Creek ~ Brian Blade ~ Perceptual
Return of the Prodigal Son ~ Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band ~ Season of Changes