Babatunde Lea - Umbo Weti: A Tribute to Leon Thomas

A big shout out to Ish at the essential ile oxumare for bringing this one to my attention. The mail man delivered the CD a couple of days back and it's really worth the outlay (yes, the yen's strong these days). Percussionist Babatunde Lea is the real deal, he's played with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson and Idris Ackamoor — as well as the late, great Leon Thomas, whose music, influence and life are celebrated here in a strong spiritual set recorded live. There's some nice video footage of the gig included too.

Read more about it over at ile oxumare — and then go over to motema for the full lowdown (plus there's a free download to whet your appetite).

Directions in Music: Celebrating Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Herbie Hancock/Michael Brecker/Roy Hargrove

barabara sounds sez:

Naima is one of those magic numbers that kisses almost every musician that tries it on (and the rest of us). Just listen to Michael Brecker playing his heart out on this version. The rest of the album has plenty of moments too – hardly surprising given the line-up here – but that one track alone is worth the price of admission.

dusty sez:

We have to admit, we had a lot of misgivings about this project before we gave it a chance and listened to it all the way through — but after all was said and done, we were quite impressed! While Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove and Michael Brecker all have the chops, recognition and reputations to make as many new recordings as they'd like, without resorting to pandering tributes, this project actually works beautifully and makes great sense. The group is rounded out by the elastic rhythms provided by John Patitucci (who seems to have graduated well beyond the sort of 6 string noodling he usually purveys) and Brian Blade. In most cases, we'd rather hear Miles doing Miles and Trane doing Trane, but this group manages to capture both the dark, brooding beauty of Miles' music and the deeper, soulful vein that Coltrane mined. Herbie sounds the best we've heard in ages and the highlight of this live set is a medley of Miles' "So What" and Coltrane's "Impressions", while the rest of the set is made up mostly of originals (2 more Coltrane pieces, "Naima" and "Tansition" are included) composed by members of the group like Hancock's "The Sorcerer" and Hargrove's "The Poet".

jazzreview.com sez

From the downbeat of the opening tune, The Sorcerer, Herbie Hancock reminds us why he was and is one of the most sought after pianist in the genre. His deftness, technique and mastery of the instrument and the music holds this group together with the same quality that he was noted for while a sideman for Miles Davis in the 60s. He masterfully connects this group’s form together and its opening sets the tone for the whole recording.

Whereas Michel Brecker isn’t considered to be in the forefront of the classical jazz idiom, his presence on this record is no aberration. He definitely shines in a solo rendition of Coltrane’s Naima. He proves, that his study of the master tenor man’s style has influenced his greatly. His own contribution to the project entitled, D-Train, is a fifteen-minute epilogue. It meanders through different time signatures while holding steady to its defining rhythm. Herbie Hancock does some of his best work on the recording in the improv section.

The young lion added to the project is Roy Hargrove. The ever-emerging Grammy award-winning trumpeter is no less than continuing the line of great players that spun the likes of Miles Davis. From is his first solo on The Sorcerer, where he begins his playing away from the microphone and hits you with an unyielding fury of notes and sound, the listener will be encompassed. Hargrove’s contribution, The Poet, is an obvious attempt, and by his own admission, to make use of space in the music. Space in the music is a trademark of Davis’. And like Davis, in this piece he seems to be searching for something in the music. His play is an example of his growth both as composer and soloist.

Another worth-reading review here too

And another date from the same tour (Aspen) was posted here on drfusion.blogspot

Chucho Valdés - Briyumba Palo Congo (Religion Of The Congo)

barabara sounds sez:

Too much talk about virtuosity and prodigious technique, not enough about the passion and balls that the great Chucho Valdés brings to the table. Catch him live and you'll be blown away.

Like the recent Sabu post, this album is inspired by the traditional rhythms of Cuba's 'Religion of the Congo' — but apart from the sheer percussive power, it's a very diffferent beast. In Chateau Barabara, it's an all-time classic.

Jazziz sez:

Pianist Valdés once again puts Cuban and American music through the speed blender of his imposing technique, swirling together cuban secular dance rhythms and religious music with swing, bop, modal, and free jazz at a dizzying pace. His second Blue Note effort away from Irakere (his long-standing Afro-Cuban answer to the Jazz Messengers) spotlights his staggering chops with a quartet featuring bassist Francisco Rubio Pampin, drummer Ra·l Pineda Roque, and percussionist Robert Vizcaino Guillet.

"El Rumbon," played over an uncharacteristically fast guaguanco rhythm, features the pianist's surreal changes of direction, as he cartwheels between hammered two-note drum patterns, McCoy Tyner-ish chords, blindingly fast lines, and blues licks. Ellington's "Caravan" features devilish left-hand patterns and accents that explode into dark, atonal note clusters, then downshift into the type of four-four chording that Erroll Garner would have related to. Valdés saves the most audacious ideas until the end of the album. "Ponle le Clave" grafts the basic clave rhythm and montuno piano vamps onto a 7/4 meter. Gershwin's familiar "Rhapsody in Blue" is reshaped as an elegant danzün.

The title track, the most experimental on the disc, blends a celebratory Palo religious chant with stride and gospel accents from Valdés. Then it opens into a free-tempo exchange between singers, percussionists, and piano, before ending with an unaccompanied piano solo that alternates between frantic energy and quiet lyricism. Sometimes, the pianist's skill and overheated imagination can get the better of him, turning the music into directionless technical displays, but when everything clicks, there are few more exciting or provocative pianists in jazz.

Personnel:

Chucho Valdes (piano, background vocals); Mayra Caridad Valdes, Juan "Chan" Campo Cardenas (vocals); Joaquin Olivero Gavilan (Cuban wooden flute); Francisco Rubio Pampin (acoustic bass, background vocals); Raul Pineda Roque (drums, background vocals); Roberto Vizcaino Guillot (congas, bata drums, background vocals); Haila Mompie Gonzalez (background vocals)

Cleveland Watkiss - Green Chimneys

barabara sounds sez:

Cleveland Watkiss just celebrated his 50th birthday with a gig at the London Jazz festival... So let's celebrate with this little gem.

Don't know Cleveland? He's a top vocalist and super versatile. Genres mean nothing: he's sung soul, gospel, reggae, jazz, drum'n'bass — even opera and choral work. And really he's nothing like Bobby McFerrin.

He was a founder (with Courtney Pine and all) of the Jazz Crusaders Warriors (thanks anon), a pioneer of UK jungle/d&b (here's more on that), and if you don't know his 2002 album Victory’s Happy Songbook, you're missing out on a true barabara classic.

But this one — his first album (or was there one before this?) from 1991 — is straight ahead jazz, which is no doubt why it came out on Verve.

AMG (Yawno) sez:

In the late '80s, Cleveland Watkiss was thought of as a British Bobby McFerrin; where has he been since?At the time of this CD, he showed a great deal of potential and was becoming more original. He is joined by some of the top young English jazz musicians of the era (including pianist Jason Rebello and, on a couple of separate songs, Courtney Pine and Steve Williamson on sopranos) with guest appearances from American drummer Clifford Jarvis and tenorman Jean Toussaint. Watkiss is the main star throughout, singing his words to Thelonious Monk's "Green Chimneys" and Wayne Shorter's "Seeds of Sin," and contributing some adventurous originals of his own. The comparisons with McFerrin apply most tonewise; Watkiss has a similar adventurous spirit, and both singers achieving a lot less in the 1990s than one might have expected. This increasingly hard-to-find CD is well worth searching for.

update...

I've dropped links in the comments for 2 other tracks by Cleveland — Kamikaze; and the DJ Patife remix of Torch Of Freedom (from Victory's). Enjoy.

Sabu - Palo Congo

barabara sounds sez:

Sabu leads a thundering Afro-Cuban percussion session, with the great Arsenio Rodriguez among some equally impressive backing musicians. High spots in this set are Aggo Elegua and the outstanding title track, both channeling the Santaria ritual. If you're looking for more typical latin sounds, then Tribilin Cantore could be the one: Arsenio's fluid guitar lines set out a blueprint for a generation of Zairean/Congolese grooves. Laid down in 1957, the original Blue Note release was in mono; this rip is from the stereo CD reissue. Whichever way you hear it, this is powerful music.

dusty sez:

One of the most unique sessions ever cut for Blue Note — an album of very traditional Afro-Cuban jamming, led by percussionist Sabu Martinez! The music on the album's comprised mostly of percussion -- plus some occasional guitar, bass, and vocals shouted by Sabu, and group members that include Arsenio Rodriguez, Ray Romero, and Willie Capo. The whole thing's incredibly haunting — and about as different from the average Blue Note hardbop set as you could get! Titles include "Simba", "Aggo Elgua", "Tribilin Cantore", "Asabache", and "Billumba-Palo Congo".

hipwax sez:

The emotional kinship between the world of this recording and the world of jazz seems so strong at times that the distance between the worlds seems no wider than the pavement of West Fifty-Fourth Street which separates the Museum of Primitive Art from the Museum of Modern Art. Yet the step from Afro-Cuban music to jazz is a long step, for the European elements of jazz are always in the foreground, while here the latin elements of "latin" music are often imperceptible. It is mostly Africa that we hear in this recording: some rituals dedicated to African Gods, a good deal of singing and chanting in African antiphonal style, and all the instruments, whether obviously African like the quinto, a Cuban version of the slit signal drum, or as apparently European as guitar and bass, played like their African proto-types in African musical tradition. Still, the kinship is there to hear, for Afro-Cuban music shares with jazz the intense motor excitement, the rhythmic fluidity that Andre Hodeir calls vital drive, and the striving for ecstatic communion which supplies much of the motive force.

Tubby Hayes - CTJ... ...ABP scans

Original scans of the cover art now (at long last) added to comments here.

Karin Krog & John Surman - Bluesand

barabara sounds sez:

One of Karin Krog's more recent (1999) and lesser known (at least to me) collaborations, but hauntingly beautiful as usual. This is the Japanese reissue which has an extra track featuring her on a version of Air on a G String arranged by keyboard maestro Morgan Fisher. This was used for a TV commercial advertising a brand of saké. It's rather tasty (and so is the music). The rest of the album is Karin with John Surman, who adds keyboards to his usual outstanding palette of clarinet and sax.

dusty sez:

For the past 30 years, Karin Krog has been one of Europe's greatest jazz vocalists -- but although she spent a time in the 70s doing some very experimental material, she's been spending a lot more time on standards lately. However, this release marks a new direction -- and has her working again with British reed genius John Surman, a frequent collaborator during the old days. All of the tracks are in English, and are penned by Surman and Krog, with a spare folksy style that hearkens back to their more progressive work in the 70s. Surman plays reeds, piano, and synthesizer -- while Krog sings and manipulates her voice with electronics. Titles include "Sas Blues", "Bluesand", "Secret Games", "Fly Away", "Sombre Woods", and "Ribbon of Sand".