Among the great classical conductors, Italy gave us Arturo Toscanini, Japan had Seiji Ozawa, the Germans had the great Herbert von Karajan. For America, the stand-alone name is Leonard Bernstein and 2018 is the year to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the birth of the great American maestro.
   Bernstein was far more than just a classical conductor. He wrote orchestral pieces—three symphonies—and movie scores and works based on some of my favorite writers: the poet W.H. Auden, the philosopher Voltaire, and Plato. He wrote Fanfare I for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
   But if there is any one thing that stands out, it must be his music for West Side Story. That musical bought together the perfect storm of composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and choreographer Jerome Robbins, to create what may be the greatest work of American musical theatre. If West Side Story were all that Bernstein ever composed, it would be enough.
   In a celebration of the maestro’s centennial and in honor of the Latino experience in New York, specifically Brooklyn and the Bronx, maestro Bobby Sanabria has reviewed and renewed Bernstein’s great work and has released West Side Story Reimagined on Randy Klein's Jazzheads label.
   “Rhythm was such an important part of the work for my father,” said Bernstein’s daughter, Jamie Bernstein. “I am so excited for the work that Bobby has done here. My father would be so happy.”
   Watching the musical, one is caught up with the lyrics and the dancing. West Side Story Reimagined, however, presents just the music in all its richness and power, humor and heartbreak. With the reimagined music and rhythms from Puerto Rico and the Afro-Cuban tradition and beyond, West Side Story becomes a cultural and musical celebration in West Side Story Reimagined.
   And when the Sharks and the Jets fight it out, you feel it.
   Not only has Bobby Sanabria enlisted his fabulous Multiverse Big Band, he has engaged brilliant arrangers like Jeremy Fletcher, Niko Siebold, Jeff Lederer, Matt Wong, Danny Rivera, Nate Sparks, Andrew Neesley, Takao Heisho, and the great Eugene Marlow.
   Each arranger gives their specific piece their unique treatment and reimagination and the results are stunning. Marlow’s arrangement of Maria is a personal favorite. But with all those brilliant arrangements is the foundation of those amazing rhythms as Bobby reimagines Bernstein’s story of life and love amidst bigotry and racism and fear.
   But love of culture, love of the city itself, finds a way to combat the fear and anger with humor and dignity. And there is no greater dignity than that which resides inside Bobby Sanabria.
   The prologue is the powerful introduction to the clave rhythm that plays such a huge part in Latin music. The oscillating rhythms define the struggle between the gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. But before the prologue, and indeed before several of the songs, is an introduction from Bobby from behind the drum kit that calls for responses from the audience at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York City. It is a powerful insertion of himself and all his experiences into the setting of the West Side.
   Jet Song is the encounter between cool bebop Jazz of the Jets and the aggressive Bomba xicá rhythm of the Sharks. It is a brilliant, evocative piece.
   America arranger Jeff Lederer said, “Our definitions of what America is have never been more challenged and the relevance of this song have never been in sharper focus.” To that end, Lederer and Bobby insert various national anthems alongside the Venezuelan joropo rhythm.
   Gee, Officer Krupke is one of the most intriguing studies in rhythm. Bobby incorporates so many rhythms from so many places and so many styles that this new view of the Polish-American police officer takes on a gentler, more appreciative aspect.
   Tonight is bound to get you. Three rhythms are infused into the piece—the bolero, the samba, and the merengue—are used to illustrate the passion and joy that Maria and Tony are feeling.
   The bembé rhythm from West Africa is used to express Tony’s love and desire for Maria in the song bearing her name. The piece is arranged by Eugene Marlow and is the sweetest piece from the whole program.
   From the restraint of Cool to the unrestrained violence of The Rumble/Rumba, the mixed rhythms tell the story as well as any lyric could. The duet between the lead trombone (Tony) and lead alto saxophone (Maria) in One Hand, One Heart includes a mix of samba and bolero. Other songs from West Side Story are heard in reference with a build-up to Something’s Coming.
   Somewhere is the very image of hopefulness and longing for a better place and a better time. All is torn away from them, however, in the death of Tony as heard in Epilogue/Finale. In the background is heard a reprise of I Have a Love and Somewhere.
   West Side Story Reimagined is Bobby’s retelling of the story in his way, seen through the eyes of love and gratitude and, often, uncertainty.
   As Bobby says, this is “a reimagining from the perspective of a Jazz musician, a Latin musician, and a native Nuyorican son who is proud to say he is from the city that defines aché, hipness, and cool.” Aché is Energy.
   In my review of Bobby’s album, Multiverse, I said that “Bobby is a prophet of life.” That was never truer than with West Side Story Reimagined.

On Saturday, August 10, 2018, Bobby and the Big Band performed the whole album for free in front of the Lincoln Center. Jazz Promo Services chief, Jim Eigo, sent the following message.
   "It was an old fashioned Palladium party last night (8-10-18) in San Juan Hill aka Damrosch Park as maestro Bobby Sanabria celebrated maestro Leonard Bernstein with a powerful performance of his West Side Story Reimagined with his Multiverse Big Band that features some of the finest players from NYC, Puerto Rico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Japan and more.
   "There was poetry from La Bruja (who reminded everyone that the opening scenes for the film West Side Story were shot in that very location where Lincoln Center now stands) and Rich Villar, a great multi-media photo slide show of vintage photographs of legendary Latin musicians, the old neighborhoods of San Juan Hill, the South Bronx and El Bario that were projected on a big screen behind the band.
   "Supreme court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was also in attendance."
 
 
         ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   Without any preamble, it must be said that this is one exciting, fun, and brilliant album. Few things in life are more fun that a swinging big band but these guys with featured vocalist Bonnie Bowden almost redefine fun.
   As for Bonnie Bowden, you should already be well-acquainted with her great body of work from the many recordings with Sergio Mendes and under her own name.
   Tim Miller is the band leader and also plays baritone sax and bass clarinet. The arrangements by Myles Collins, John Clayton, Mark Taylor, Jerry Nowak, Sammy Nestico, and Patrick Williams are tight and powerful. In a big band setting, of course, it is the arrangement that is in control, unlike smaller groups where the individual artists have freer reign.
   Patrick Williams also composed and arranged the title song, Livin’ the Canary Life, which is especially poignant with the recent passing of the brilliant and generous man. Bonnie said, “He wrote Livin’ the Canary Life and Cry Me a River charts for me. I was so very grateful. I cried when he gave them to me... Gratis. Very lovely and kind man.”
   It makes an exciting album even more meaningful.
   The album opens with Frank Wildhorn’s Till You Come Back to Me. Bonnie Bowden’s enunciation moves from staccato to legato in the coolest transitions. RW Enoch’s tenor sax solo is splendid and the rhythm section of Dustin Morgan (bass) and John Spooner and Jack Cook (drums both) is smoking.
   Then it all bursts into flame with Swing, Swing, Swing. The title is a perfect description of what the John Williams composition does. It is an instrumental that is a fantastic bridge between the opening track and what follows. The mix is so well done that the whole reed and horn sections can almost be picked out individually. Hats off to Jim Baldree for his producing/engineering/mixing/mastering expertise. And the guy plays a great bass trombone, too.
   Cry Me a River is just beautiful. Patrick Williams arranged the Arthur Hamilton classic to stunning effect. Bonnie has a way of telegraphing the next note that is extraordinary. The bluesy piece is done to perfection by Bonnie and the band, alike. I mean, perfection.
   Then Bonnie redirects her delivery in I’m Gonna Live Til I Die. She even pronounces certain letters differently in such an appropriate way for the song’s playful mood. Nothing is straight-up with this group of artists. They meet the challenge of each piece on its own terms and they just own it.
   The Angel City Big Band takes up Jerome Kern’s All The Things You Are next. The instrumental treatment presents great solos by Paul Pate on alto sax and Mike Meunch on trumpet. Mark Taylor arranged the piece, taking one of the best-loved standards and making it fresh with added swing.
   Livin’ the Canary Life is the centerpiece both in track placement and holding the album’s title honors. The song mentions the great female vocalists, detailing the life of the singer. But one can’t help but wonder if Arthur Hamilton’s lyrics also carry a bit of the idea that these singers were also voices of warning, like the canary in the mine.
                                                            I keep swingin’ through all the smoke
                                                             I keep singin’ though I end up broke
   Enoch gets another tenor sax solo and the band punches in the accents as the rhythm section nails it over and over again.
   One surprise is the reworking of the Billy Preston/Bruce Fisher song made famous by Joe Cocker, You Are So Beautiful. Bonnie’s singing is every bit as emotional as the original but seated splendidly within the context of this amazing big band. With Cocker’s version, you enjoyed the raw emotion of the song. With Bonnie and the Angel City Big Band, you enjoy everything from Rick Parent’s piano to the whole band’s ebb and flow to Bonnie’s warm vocals.
   Gold Coffee is like a film noir soundtrack. It is a Sammy Nestico original instrumental. The song evokes images of Sam Spade peering corners on a rainy L.A. night. Another smoky RW Enoch tenor sax solo accentuates the coolness of the piece. Enoch hits his target time after time.
   The band takes another leap in Mark Taylor’s arrangement of John Coltrane classic, Giant Steps. Dave Hickok lays down a cool trombone solo and is followed up by Enoch on the tenor sax. Jack Cook inserts a fine drum solo and the band takes on the legendary song like it was always meant to be a large ensemble piece in the first place.
   Duke Ellington’s Do Nothin’ Til You Hear from Me (Bill Russell, lyrics) gets fresh look as Terry O’Bannon adds a cool organ to the band. They slide right into Irving Berlin’s How Deep Is the Ocean, arranged by Jerry Nowak. If you weren’t infatuated with Bonnie Bowden before now, this song will do the job. I mean, Good Lord.
   Bonnie caps it all off with a vocal only introduction to Cole Porter’s From This Moment On. The band jumps in with Spooner’s fine bass line behind. It is a swinging, song of joie de vivre and great hope.
   Bonnie delivers convincingly as she moves from pouty to pained, funny to flirty, and always lovely. There is nothing not to love about her.
   The Angel City Big Band is flawless in their own virtuosity and emphatic dashes. They can be as languid as Bonnie and as playful as she is. This is a perfect pairing of band with vocalist.
  Nobody detracted from this recording. The choosing of the pieces, the arrangements and original compositions, the musicianship and artistry from vocalist and instrumentalists, the recording and mixing and mastering, even the sepia-toned album cover, was all so very fitting.
   A wonderful, wonderful album.

    Guitarist Bill Hart has put together a band of killers. There is no weak link in the bunch. He has released several acclaimed albums in a Jazz-Funk-Fusion style. Live at Red Clay Theatre is his 2018 release on Blujazz Productions and is brilliantly produced and marvelously executed.
   It is his sixth album and he told one interviewer, “All the tracks are original but none of them are new, although you could say they are new versions that somehow have taken on a beautiful life of their own.” A beautiful life of their own is right.
   Shalom Aberle mixes the live recording and it is superb. The warm atmosphere of the great Atlanta venue is splendidly portrayed in this live recording.
   Beachside Isle opens the set with a sweet guitar intro that kicks into a tight little bit between Alex McGuiness on sax and Pat Strawser on keyboards. Hart’s guitar resumes control as Dwayne Wallace’s bass and Steven Walker’s drums lay down a cool rhythm line. Emrah Kotan is on percussion and he and Hart add their own drive to McGuiness’ return lead.
   The band plays like a unit and the musical camaraderie and intuitiveness between them is electrifying. There are moments that makes one think of Weather Report and we haven’t even departed the first track yet. Hang on.
   Jim Gilligan follows up with an ambient opening that gives way to an acoustic nylon string guitar and sax pairing as the full band deploys into a gentler expression. McGuiness adds soulful punctuations to Hart’s guitar intonations.  
   Bill Hart’s use of various guitars gives so many different flavors to the pieces. Someone called Bill Hart “smooth Jazz” and they should be beaten about the head and shoulders with Kenny G albums. Hart may be smooth but “smooth Jazz” as a sub-genre, he is not.
   Deep Skies cranks out the Stratocaster in opening lines of bone-crushing funk. Yeah, I was all in from here on out. Wallace lays down pulse-pounding bass lines and Walker rolls in the thunder on the drums. There are interludes of straight-ahead Jazz only to return to that monster funk. Dwayne Wallace becomes a hero on this track while Hart tears open the skies with his furious Stratocaster work. Can’t get enough and neither could the audience.
   Sara’s Song returns to the sweeter side with the acoustic introduction. The band starts to swing by midway and McGuiness introduces the soprano sax. Strawser’s keyboards are expressive and cool. Don’t miss what Walker is doing on drums. The tone and texture of his drumming is extraordinary on this lovely piece.
   That’s Purdy is from Hart’s Touch of Blue album. It is a cool Blues bit and smoking guitar licks and tight rhythms. I like the note-for-note playing between Hart and McGuiness. Truly cool Blues.
   Canadese Africano is from 2008’s Subject to Change. This is one fine example of the beautiful new life that these pieces enjoy in the live setting of the Red Clay Theatre. It is precise and tight without ever losing its lyricism. Hart has arranged a wonderful reworking of this number with the right people at the right positions. And Hart himself is on fire. It’s not fast and furious but his tone and technique are beautiful.
   Got to love Emrah Kotan’s percussion outro.
   And that percussion continues into the intro of This is Why. Hart’s acoustic guitar delicately takes over for several minutes. Sax and keyboards will get their own turns before the return of the guitar to close out the piece. A fine composition that is meditative and reflective.
   Spazio Aperto follows in staccato pops and punches before trading with more melodic lines. The picking style creates an openness here as percussion and bass fill the very space created by Hart. The Blues-Jazz feel of the piece are highlighted by the rhythm section as Strawser’s Zawinulesque keyboards never detract from the bluesier elements. McGuiness brings back the soprano sax as the tightly wound band swirls around him and he around them like binary stars. A great composition, to be sure.
   The album closes with Elected from the album Watch the Sky, the same album that gave us Beachside Isle and Sara’s Song. It has Hart at his most energetic and the whole band clearly choosing to leave it all on the field. Every member of the band gets to contribute their finest, fulfilling the entertainment maxim to “Always leave them wanting more.” This is Bill Hart Band in its tightest Fusion. What a great way to conclude an album.
   It’s difficult to determine just where Bill Hart is most gifted—guitarist or composer or band leader. This can be said with assurance, Bill Hart knows how to pick the right guys to complement his musicianship in playing his own brilliant compositions.
   Greg Pasenko and Bluejazz Productions have brought us a winner.
 
 
              ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   Jon Irabagon is a master story-teller, a brilliant composer, a wicked saxophonist, and a leader with the skills of Julius Caesar. Let’s go ahead and say it, he was the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. He has conducted masterclasses in several different countries and has his own record label, Irabbagast Records.    He has currently released six of his own efforts, including I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues Volume 2: Appalachian Haze (2012, with Mike Pride and Mick Barr), Outright! Unhinged (2008, with Ralph Alessi, Jacob Sacks, John Hebert and Tom Rainey), It Takes All Kinds (2013, featuring Mark Helias and Barry Altschul), Behind the Sky (2015, featuring Tom Harrell, Luis Perdomo, Yasushi Nakamura and Rudy Royston), Inaction is an Action (2015, a solo sopranino saxophone recording) and now, Dr. Quixotic’s Traveling Exotics (2018, with Tim Hagans, Luis Perdomo, Yasushi Nakamura and Rudy Royston). 
   Dr. Quixotic’s Traveling Exotics is a riveting collection of quirky, fascinating, illuminating, and gripping pieces that Irabagon weaves with the abandon of a voodoo houngan. For all that, the discipline is extraordinary and the poetry is sublime.
   Irabagon kicks off the album with The Demon Barber of Fleet Week, a hilarious tongue in cheek title. And the song starts off with Irabagon creating a fantastic tenor sax improv. The tones and techniques grab you from the start, At least, they did me. Then, at the 1:41 mark, you hear the great Rudy Royston crashing in on drums along with Nakamura and Perdomo. Irabagon has got a fantastic rhythm section with Yasushi Nakamura on bass and Rudy Royston on the drums. Luis Perdomo is a fascinating and rewarding pianist. These are the artists who were with him on 2015’s Behind the Sky. The quartet’s an all-star collection and with them, on this album, is Tim Hagans on trumpet as guest soloist.
   The drive gives way to melody in a brilliant transition with Nakamura seizing the lead. Nakamura is unrelenting as Irabagon re-enters the frame. But don’t lose sight of Royston’s drumming in the midst of all the frenetic intricacies. Perdomo is exactly the right guy for piano work here and throughout the album.
   And it keeps cooking. Emotional Physics/The Things moves quickly from pulse-pounding to languid and you love every second of each and the transition between them. Tom Hagans makes his appearance in force with Jon and the rhythm section blows you away, as well.
   Yasushi means “gentle” in Japanese but Yasushi Nakamura is anything but gentle on that bass. Now, he may be a gentleman in person but I’m sure his bass would beg to differ. Hagans has the same wonderfully weird sensibilities as the rest of the quartet and they rapport between, indeed, all of them is electrifying.
   And somehow, Irabagon, makes these cool shifts from the sublime to the ridiculous (I mean that in a good way) that brings a smile with a tilt of the head.
   You Own Your Own opens with Perdomo soloing with furious left-hand arpeggios and right-hand chording before the corps jumps in. Irabagon and Hagans echo back Perdomo’s lines in a cool Jazz counterpoint. Once again, I come back to Royston’s choices. Intricate and furious, Royston is the ideal drummer for these compositions and for this quartet.
Irabagon and Hagans are in fantastic dialogue on this track, as Perdomo and Nakamura create their own conversation.
   The Bo’Ness Monster is riotous! Bo’ness is the Scottish pronunciation of Borrowstounness, a small coastal town of the central lowlands overlooking the Firth of Forth. On this album, a skulking piano/bass line lays a monstrous (sorry) foundation for the horns. Menacing and on the loose, the rhythm section gives chase to the horns in a wildly entertaining exercise in tight harmonies and demanding rhythms.
   Pretty Like North Dakota is the longest piece on the album and opens with a lovely solo piano. This, like all the songs on Dr. Quixotic’s Traveling Exotics is composed by Jon Irabagon. The muted trumpet and bass mirror each other while the piano maintains its sweet, sometimes haunting, melody and Royston washes over all with cymbals. Irabagon joins in and the horns play in unison over Nakamura’s bass.
   Then the piece starts to swing. At just over 15 minutes, it is the longest tune on the album. In all that time, there are several exciting shifts in tempo and melody and harmony.
   The album concludes with Taipei Personality. I admit, I laughed out loud when I read the title. The piece is driven and determined, like a Type-A personality but also sounds a little confused like the person who posed the question on the Wordreference.com forum, “What is a Taipei personality?” The single answer was returned, “You’re spelling it incorrectly. It’s Type A personality.”
   The tune has its own swing and its own destination and it is wonderful. Irabagon nails some of his most impressive lines here.
   Dr. Quixotic’s Traveling Exotics is an exciting excursion into odd breaks, intoxicating rhythms, hypnotic melodies, and delightful pairings in harmony. The compositions are amazing and the artistry of the musicians is superb. This quartet smokes. The album is one to keep close at hand for a long time to come.
 
        ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

  Mark Wade is one of those extraordinary cats who can lead from a support position. I love bassists and drummers because they make their names by being behind everything and everyone else. They are the foot soldiers and they suffer all “the slings and arrows of outrageous” ingratitude and ill-begotten jokes. And yet, they are the driving force behind the movement of the music and the music doesn’t swing unless they do.
   Maybe that’s why I love the Jazz trio as much as I do. In a trio, the rhythm section is, in fact, the whole band.
   Mark Wade is an exemplary bassist who has been called on by the finest musicians in New York City and everywhere else. The relationships he establishes with both drummers and pianists is something beautiful. He can provide melody and harmony, poetry and propulsion, and move seamlessly between.
   His debut album, Event Horizon, Mark introduced the trio of Tim Harrison on piano, Mark himself on bass, and Scott Neumann on drums. Mark proved even then that this was not simply a piano trio; Mark could step to the fore and do it effortlessly and elegantly. On Moving Day, Mark’s second album, he brings the same trio along for the continuing journey.
   Moving Day the album opens with the title track, a Wade original. The piano and bass open the piece with light cymbal touches highlighting the bass line and piano arpeggio. A sweet melody emerges delicately in a riveting 6/4 time signature. It has to be said, I was hooked from the start and had to fight the impulse to just hit repeat over and over.
   The piece—indeed the whole album—is so incredibly well-balanced. I was taken with everyone’s performance and with the remarkable symmetry and rapport between the three.
   Wide Open follows next Neumann’s cymbals giving a brief opening before Wade and Harrison kick in. The piece, another Wade original, is an exercise in discipline and drive as they shift between 3/4, 4/4, and 7/4. This is a great ride! Wade’s lead is fantastic as Harrison and Neumann follow brilliantly. This tune is tight.
   The Bells is vivid in its imagery of French church bells. There is a touch of Debussy that is almost intoxicating. In fact, as Sammy Stein points out in the liner notes, Mark has three strands to this melodic cord: Debussy’s La Mer, a bit of a seascape interlude, and the sounds of the Nice church bells. Gorgeous.
   Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia is bent to Mark’s will as he picks up or drops beat to create Another Night in Tunisia. The melody is unmistakable but the rhythm shakes loose on its own. Scott Neumann turns in a grand drum solo as Harrison and Wade beat the melody like back-alley mugging. It has exquisitely raw moments and I just can’t get enough.
   Something of a Romance is set free from the restrictions of specific time signatures where love is given free rein. Harrison plays a gorgeous lead and Mark punctuates the melody with his own lead before handing it back to Harrison’s fine piano. There is a delicacy, even a fragility, in the song that—seriously—made me want to go take my Nicole in my arms and not let her go. Sweet.
   Joseph Kosma’s Autumn Leaves is one of those great exercises in Jazz harmony. Mark takes the straightforward chord progressions and reworks them beautifully in his own expression of the piece. This isn’t Nat King Cole’s Autumn Leaves, especially as Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage is worked into the tune. Wonderful.
   Midnight in the Cathedral creates a rather haunting image with the echoing cymbals and hollow melodies. While Mark imagines all the music played in the cathedral over the decades, even centuries, the feeling of a racing heart in the dark stillness is palpable. Then Mark and Harrison transform the number into a bit of a send-up of the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) from the Latin Requiem Mass. It is intense. It is driven. It fills one’s head with scenes of “Sunday morning, creeping like a nun.”
   The scene and mood changes with The Quarter is a rollicking homage to New Orleans with the snappy 4/4 and general funkiness. Mark kicks down Bourbon Street in the liveliest way. The bass lines and the straight-ahead drumming is as evocative of Louisiana as Midnight is of an old church.
   The album beautifully concludes with In the Fading Rays of Sunlight. The resonance between the trio is stunning. Maybe it was just in the title but it made me think of Thelonious Monk’s Crepuscule with Nellie with its cool turns and splashes of brightness. What a way to end an album.
   The album, the trio, Mark Wade, none of them disappoint. In an album that started with bright hope, Moving Day leaves you with satisfied fulfillment and great, great joy.
 
 
        ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   The Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra (MJO) is comprised of the best and the brightest of the Milwaukee Jazz scene. The musical director of the MJO is Curt Hanrahan who is also director of the Jazz Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. With his is his brother, drummer Warren Hanrahan, and Curt’s son, Tim Hanrahan on bass.
   The brothers—with Tim—brought onboard Jay Mollerskov on guitar and Mitch Shiner on vibraphone to create an album of devotional music with Jazz flavorings and Jazz with a devotional approach.
The theme of the album is centered on a quote from John Coltrane. “God breathes through us so completely…so gently we hardly feel it…yet, it is our everything.”
   The album opens with the Racine Dominicans chanting the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, his Pange Lingua Gloriosi/Tantum Ergo, Sing, My Tongue, The Savior’s Glory /Down in Adoration Falling. As the chant begins to fade, Tim’s bass begins to take over, then Warren’s drums, followed by Shiner’s vibes. Tim’s bass is a continuation of the chant as the group develops its way into John McLaughlin’s Resolution, the final track from the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s 1973 album, Birds of Fire. Mollerskov, then Curt, carry into the piece with the high melodic ascendancy and pulsing rhythms until the song fades back into the Dominicans’ chant, Tantum Ergo, the last two verses of the Pange Lingua.
   In the liner notes, the Brothers tell us in no uncertain terms the point of the album. This recording portrays a historical and spiritual journey, embracing Jazz standards and sacred hymns in the effort to evoke the story of the human/divine struggle.
The second track flows seamlessly from the first with Wayne Shorter’s Footprints and John Coltrane’s Equinox. Tim’s bass introduces Footprints and is joined by the vibes then the guitar. In the switch back to vibes, the Dominicans intone the 14th century Christmas carol, Resonet in Laudibus, Let the voice of praise resound.
   Curt delivers a soulful, brilliant soprano sax while Warren’s drumming is harmonic in its own right. Mollerskov’s guitar solo is wonderful. Sometimes sweet, sometimes raw, the balance of an equinox is held beautifully. Curt finishes off with the tenor sax, yielding to the Dominicans’s chant that from the Virgin comes a King.
   Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday was the spiritual section from his longer opus called Black, Brown & Beige. The critics panned the great work at its opening in 1943 and Ellington rearranged the longer work into a shorter suite. Of all the songs from Black, Brown & Beige, Come Sunday remains the favorite. Its theme is in complete harmony with the Brothers’ mission to portray the human/divine struggle. Ellington’s piece, though, is full of open-eyed hope.
   Shiner’s exquisite vibraphone leads off the tune. Curt’s haunting alto sax gives voice to the struggle in counterpoint to the sublime vibes. Mollerskov’s guitar is thoughtful, meditative. The sax returns in melancholy thought and the dialectics are on.
   Of course, it’s Ellington, so you know it’s beautiful but the MJO Brothers never, ever detract from the original beauty while speaking their own minds about life.
   Hail Mary, Gentle Woman is written by Carey Landry. Landry is well-known for his Roman Catholic hymns. Hail Mary, Gentle Woman is sweet and soulful. There is a bluesy feel and Curt’s sax does not let it go unexpressed. Tim and Warren drive the piece extremely well, keeping the steadiness of the devotion with a crescendo of worshipful exultations to close the piece instrumental, giving way to the Dominican chant of O Lumen Ecclessiae, O Light of the Church, an antiphon sung in commemoration of St. Dominic on his feast day.
                                                                    O light of the church, teacher of truth,
                                                                       rose of patience, ivory of chastity,
                                                              You freely poured forth the waters of wisdom,
                                                               preacher of grace, unite us with the blessed.
   Jesus Christ is Risen Today is given a funky slant as the Dominicans sing behind. Warren’s cymbals punctuate the chant and the guitar and sax create—not only a joyful—a defiant declaration of the Resurrection. The Dominicans are chanting O Filii et Filiae,O Sons and Daughters, a fitting Easter hymn by Jean Tisserand, a Franciscan (c.1494). While the theme is solemn, the delivery is one of riotous exuberance. The theme and the musicianship is telling you who’s boss.
   The album closes with Our Lady of Fatima by the Phillipines’ composer, Aiza Sequerra, with the Daughters of St. Paul Choir singing along. Fatima’s message was one of vigilant hope in the face of sadness and difficulty and you hear it in every note and drum stroke. There is a palpable sadness but it is not despair. No one stands out but everyone stands out in a hymn to oneness, devotion, and single-minded hope.
   Hip Devotions is meditative, as well as moving, sweet and secure, pensive but powerful. In the end, it is an album to three mothers: the Blessed Virgin, Holy Mother Church, and Ruth Hanrahan.
   Greg Pasenko of BluJazz Productions knows how to give voice to artists with something to say.




                 ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   Bridges is Shirley Crabbe follow-up to her 2011 debut album, Home. We can only ask, “What took you so long?” in the sense of what we have been missing.
   This is a concept album in the sense of the thematic center being about the connections that we experience, enjoy, reject or simply lose. To help her tell the tale, she has brought along a cast of heavy hitters. Sitting the piano is Donald Vega (except on Isn’t This a Lovely Day, And So It Goes and Thief in the Night which are played by David Budway), Clovis Nicolas on bass, Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums (Alvester Garnett plays on Blessed Assurance and Taking a Chance on Love), and Brandon Lee on trumpet, with a string section composed of Chris Cardona and Sean Carney on violins, Todd Low on viola, and Stephanie Cummins on cello.
   I read the personnel list and, seeing Vega and Owens, I was all in from the start. Then you hear Shirley sing… turn off the phone, lock the door, and remain uninterrupted as you hear the voice of the angels.
   She opens the album with a great Irving Berlin tune, Isn’t This a Lovely Day. She admits that it was a tune she got from Ella Fitzgerald but Shirley is her own voice and has her own message and she makes the song her own with Budway’s understated, but very effective, piano work. And Owens plays just as subdued with the cumulative effect that on the first track of the album you are hearing Shirley’s magnificent voice front and center. The strings are a lovely support.
   Taking a Chance on Love was made famous by the legendary Ethel Waters and Shirley and Budway do a one-woman show on Waters. This song was a perfect addition to the present album. We get to hear Vega (also the album’s musical director) and Alvester Garnett (drums) and Clovis Nicolas (bass) together here.
   Next, Shirley takes on the wonderful Milton Nascimento tune Bridges. I am a huge fan of Nascimento, always have been, so to hear Shirley and the band do such wonderful honor to Bridges is a treat to my ears.
                                                                     There's a bridge to tomorrow
                                                                    There's a bridge from the past
                                                                   There's a bridge made of sorrow
                                                                          That I pray will not last
                                                                    There's a bridge made of colors
                                                                            In the sky high above
                                                                     And I think that there must be
                                                                         Bridges made out of love
   Nascimento and Sarah Vaughan recorded the piece together and Shirley has achieved the daunting task of making her treatment something special and able to stand alone amidst so many great versions of the song.
   She follows Bridges with The Bridge, a piece she wrote with Donald Vega. The theme should, by now, be obvious. The tune features sweet piano work by Vega and the bass and drums of Nicolas and Owens. These four together are enough to make you sing out loud.
                                                               Let us build a Bridge that’ll take us home
                                                                             Dancing in the Light
                                                                               One Girl, One Boy
                                                                            Two Hearts set on Fire
   Got to love it.
   The Rodgers and Hart standard I Didn’t Know What Time It Was-- a favorite of Shirley’s—was arranged by Shirley and Vega. Brandon Lee offers a fine trumpet solo. The arrangement oscillates between a pulsating punctuation and a smooth swing with wonderful artistry from all concerned. Ulysses Owens, Jr., in particular, captured my attention throughout the tune with his accents.
   Another Shirley and Vega original, Promise Me, is set well in the track listing. Something about this one made me sit up and take notice. I think it was the fragile plea of hoping for everlasting love and commitment. Shirley sings of the pain and disappointment of the past but her step into the future is something still tentative and in need of assurance. The tune is upbeat and cool but those lyrics made me see something beyond the current-presence of love, a fear of a repeating cycle.
   Maybe I was just listening for it but, when she follows that tune with Michel Legrand’s Windmills of Your Mind, I was convinced of what I thought I heard. The arrangement is by Shirley and Vega and it is a beauty. Again, I am a big fan of Michel Legrand and Shirley and Vega make this a restatement of the sometime transience of romantic love; bridge that is definitely a toll road.
   Shirley doesn’t let up with And So It Goes by Billy Joel. She stays with the motif of the crystalline nature of opening one’s heart. I admit I’m not a huge Billy Joel devotee but Shirley takes this Matt Haviland arrangement and creates a work of tragedy and beauty and, ultimately, hope. Wow. Really. Just wow.
   Move along now.
   Thief in the Night, the Dietz and Schwartz song for which Budway also wrote the lovely and warm string arrangement, is the penultimate piece on the album. It is a slow, beautiful stroll through a reminiscence of a love affair. So nicely done.
   Shirley finishes this beautiful album with a surprise—I mean, a big surprise. Her final song is the classic Spiritual by Fanny J. Crosby, Blessed Assurance. I never saw it coming. It took me back to my childhood days in a southern church where the songs of Crosby were sung each and every service. Crosby was blind from shortly after birth and was a composer, poet, and missionary. She is said to have composed over 8,000 hymns and songs.
   For Shirley to end her album with this is something truly extraordinary. In an album that speaks of the instability of romantic love, she concludes with a declaration of a higher love—a love that is guaranteed and is, in no way, fragile. Something and someone you can count on.
   Talk about a bridge.
 
 
~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   Chris and Dan Brubeck are indeed their father’s sons. They toured with Dave Brubeck extensively—I was happy to see them in concert in 1982—and they learned their craft from his example. Chris plays bass and trombone while Dan is a brilliant drummer. Together, as Brubeck Brothers Quartet, they have released four albums and their latest offering TimeLine is a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Dave Brubeck’s State Department Tour as an official US representative of Jazz.
   Diplomacy in 9/8 that influenced Dave and inspired some of his own compositions. While in Istanbul, the Brubecks tell us, Dave heard the wild beats of street musicians in Istanbul and “determined the time signature was in 9/8, wrote a melody that fit the rhythmic pattern,” and “borrowed the Rondo form from classical music.”
    The result, of course, was the phenomenal Blue Rondo a la Turk—to this day, one of my favorite pieces. The thing about the 9/8 time—stop me if you’ve heard this—was that it was not in an expected 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Rather, it was performed as 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3.
   Enter the Brubeck Brothers Quartet version of the piece. Dave’s original started off with this exquisite piano work but the Brothers kick it off Dan pounding out the rhythm on the hand drum, particularly the doumbek, a Middle Eastern drum. After several bars, the piano joins in for only a measure and the doumbek takes over again. The result is what Dave was trying to show all along, the driving and intoxicating rhythms of the streets of Istanbul.
   Far More Blue is another Dave Brubeck original that the Quartet bends to their own will. It starts in its own leisurely 4/4—the standard Jazz time for so many years before Dave’s influence—before launching into a lively 5/4 and a whole new ball game with its own nod and wink to Take Five.
   It’s got to be said, Chuck Lamb is one brave soul to sit the piano on Dave’s great parts. And he does not disappoint, not once. The 5/4 groove is great fun as Chris on bass and Dan on drums work their own magic on this great tune, even as Mike DiMicco gets his turn to solo. Then Dan turns loose in a wonderful wrangling of all things percussive.
It was difficult to move past this track. I kept coming back just for the sheer enjoyment of it.
   Easy As You Go highlights Chris on trombone in a smooth (I mean that it in a good way) Jazz noir rendering of the lyrics written by Iola Brubeck. Chris explains, “This tune is really an example of the amazing partnership my parents had and how Dave’s music and Iola’s lyrics really informed each other. That’s why I’m particularly conscious of the phrasing on this tune.”
It is a son’s loving tribute to the talents of his parents.
   Since Love Had Its Way is another Dave original and features an extraordinary guitar solo by DiMicco. All the while, Chris, Dan, and Chuck keep the swing going. Then we get a Chris bass solo with some scat. This is a fun tune.
   Boundward Home is a remarkable piece by Chuck Lamb. DiMicco’s guitar alongside Lamb’s piano is tight and beautiful. In an album of Dave Brubeck pieces, I was surprised to find myself so taken with a tune from someone other than a Brubeck. He must have been adopted by them.
   Boundward Home is an expeditionary ¾ number that the Brubecks say portrays “the spirit of adventure crossing the oceans.”
   Remember, the State Department Tour took the Brubecks on a cultural exchange across the planet, into the perceived hostility of Eastern Europe and into the Middle East. Ambassadorship and adventure are the key elements of the tour and this album.
   A piece not from the 1958 tour but still echoing the theme is Tritonis. Reinterpreted in a current framework, the tune is simply gorgeous in an album overtaken with beauty and imagination and, from there, into frenetic rhythms and intricacies of melody, harmony, and rhythm in The Golden Horn. DiMicco takes a solo that allows you to slow your heart-rate for a few seconds before he upends the hearer on his own.
   The Golden Horn may be the most exciting track on the album and that is saying something.
Chris contributed 3 Wise Men with its imagery of camels and desert quests. While there may not be a sense of urgency, there is the feeling of commitment and determination as they pass sandy dunes, infrequent oases, and unexpected winds. This is almost a Jazz tone poem.
   Mike DiMicco composed North Coast with its unabashedly modern, even urban, turn of a phrase or two. His guitar work is sweet stuff and the rhythm section swings straight ahead. This tune itself is well worth the price of admission.
   Prime Directive is Chuck Lamb’s imagining of Dave Brubeck’s instructions from the State Department to “conquer hearts and minds with Jazz.” Silly politicians. Jazz does not conquer. It makes alliances.
   But these guys certainly spike your drink with their virtuosity, honesty, and imagination.
   Thank You (Dziekuje) concludes the album. It is an original Dave piece that was written on the occasion of his visiting Chopin’s house. The Brothers turn the tune into a slow bossa nova and is a fitting, even emotional, acknowledgment to the countries Dave visited, to Dave for his artistry and heart, and to people of goodwill.
    What a wonderful, wonderful album.
 
  
~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   John Proulx has seized his own destiny and has released Say It—his fourth album—independently. Joining him on this new excursion is an old friend, and brilliant producer, Judy Wexler. It’s not very often I would say this but Judy Wexler is enough to make me sit up and take notice.
   And good thing I did.
   Proulx is a very pleasant surprise. He shouldn’t be because he has brought aboard an excellent array of supporting musicians like Larry Koonse on guitar, Bob Sheppard on soprano and tenor sax, Chuck Berghofer on bass, and Joe LaBarbera on drums. Add to them the Gina Kronstadt Strings and you’re set up for a good time.
   Proulx himself is the arranger, pianist, and vocalist, excelling at all three positions. Not only that, he has a great sense of choosing songs that are perfect—I said perfect—for the present endeavor. He picks a set list of 10 songs that include known, but not necessarily standard, pieces from the Jazz and Pop catalogs.
   He grabs me from the start with his choice of Luis Banfa’s Gentle Rain. Maybe I’m an easy mark but you open with Banfa and I’m your boy.
   First off, Larry Koonse introduces the piece with solo guitar. I dig the guy but he works this exceedingly well. Berghofer and LaBarbera are enthralling and Proulx makes room for all of them.
   John Proulx, however, steals the show and he should. His piano skills are spot on and his voice is exactly what you would hope to hear.
   Michael Franks’ Scatsville is riddled with typical Franks wordplay and Proulx owns it. I mean, he just owns it. I was easy to please with Gentle Rain but Scatsville just reeled me in. Bob Sheppard adds a sweet soprano sax to the piece while the rhythm section propels the track simply and solidly.
   Michel Legrand’s The Summer Knows is a lovely, albeit haunting, song. I’ve always had a soft spot for it, I’ll admit, even though it seems like everyone has done it: Sinatra, Streisand, Bennett, and more. I listened to Proulx singing it and immediately remembered watching The Summer of ’42 and hearing it for the first time. Proulx does the song justice but, more than that, he does it honor. I loved it.
   He does the same with Watch What Happens—with a fine piano interlude and fascinating cymbal work from LaBarbera—as well as Say It, the title track. Say It is so understated and so well done. I enjoyed the andante left-hand piano motif. Koonse joins in again with splendid guitar work.
   I Don’t Worry About a Thing is the great Mose Alison blues shuffle. Bob Sheppard gets to work the tenor sax hotly. Again, Proulx makes this one his own and then turns on the Jazz nocturne in The Last Goodbye.
   Good God, this man does not disappoint.
   In another turn, Proulx is joined by Melissa Manchester for Stained Glass with predictably wonderful results. I say predictably in a good way. They are so complementary in this romantic (again, in a good way) song. Listening through the album, at this point I was asking myself if things could get any better.
   They could.
    The penultimate song on the album was the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn number Something to Live For. I have almost everything a human can desire is the opening line. The smoothness of Proulx’s delivery is exquisitely displayed here. The instrumental passages are exceptional and his piano artistry is immensely enjoyable. Berghofer’s bass solo is rich.
   The Proulx closes the album with Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. Truth be told, I’ve never been a Joni Mitchell devotee. John Proulx’s delivery of this song actually made me understand the song. I was even moved by it. But don’t tell anybody.
   The arrangement here—indeed on all the songs—are impressive. Proulx has got the goods. His piano talents are fantastic. His singing is precisely what I wanted to hear. His musical direction is stellar. I mean, the guy just has it.
   Judy Wexler’s production is crystal. The supporting artists deliver. What a great album.
   I just can’t get enough of Say It. Now, I want the back catalog.
 
  ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   Jamie Shew lost her husband to cancer and she found herself without words to say. But she could sing what was in her heart and she could make us at least begin to understand what her husband Roger meant to her. Their love must have been profound and her grief must be just as deep.
   Her musical training goes back to early childhood (age four, according to her mother) and her musicianship plays heavily in her vocal talent and technique. There is something heart-warming in the heart-breaking history of her life with Roger. In fact, lyrically speaking, Roger is the hidden hero of the narrative—the unseen electron that leaves such a discernible path in the cloud-chamber of Jamie’s heart. We never get to know him but we know his effect on her.
   Helping her tell the story are pianist and Hammond B3 organist Joe Bagg, guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Darek Oles, and drummer Jason Harnell. These guys can be light-hearted, and even whimsical, or they can be dark and brooding and they do it all with great respect and a depth of their own.
   The album opens with Jamie’s own composition, Get Out of My Head. It has a unique wit and wisdom in its sitz im leben. It features Bagg on the B3 and presents Jamie in her Jazziest delivery. While Jamie arranges all of the pieces on the album, she composed two of them. Her arrangement of Cole Porter’s Easy to Love is splendid and her enunciation of certain phrases is especially cool. When she says We’d be so grand there is an almost over-statement of the GR sound in grand that made me take notice. She did that several times. She hits the R like Ella Fitzgerald did. And I dig it.
   In Pat Metheny’s Question & Answer, Roger wrote the lyrics and changed the title to The Answers Are You and changed the feel of the song to one of tenderness. The result is beautiful.
   Mountain Greenery (Rodgers and Hart) is a dizzy swing that recalls happier times and the band brings a smile with their touch. The lyrics speak of the headiness of a mountain trip where Roger proposed to Jamie.
   It’s followed by Easy Living (Rainger and Robin) and speaks so sweetly of being in love with the one you are destined to be with. There’s nothing in life but you…but you is the last line of the song.
   Then the mood begins to shift with You Don’t Know What Love Is. Larry Koonse turns in some cool work with his solo. Joe Bagg follows up on piano with an excellent turn of his own while Oles and Harnell play underneath with their own ear-catching rhythms.
   O Cantador is sung in the original Portuguese—maybe the most beautiful language in the world. The lyricism of her vocals and that of Bagg’s piano is a thing of true beauty. Koonse’s nylon-stringed acoustic guitar sits so well in this frame.
   Monk’s Reflections (lyrics by Jon Hendricks) is bound to please. It is a straight Jazz tune but with lyrics/vocals that are so well-suited to Jamie and her experiences, especially with Roger. In this eternal waltz, we all just keep dancing.
   The album concludes with Jamie’s original Eyes Wide Open. Where do you start when your world starts to crumble? She asks from the start. And she concludes with I choose skies. I choose stars. I choose light. I choose Love.
   Make no mistake. Jamie Shew sings of her love and her loss but she never turns maudlin in the midst of the melancholy. She brings hope to the heart-broken. The album was born in tragedy but ends with self-reflection and self-revelation. And that is never a bad thing.
 
   ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl