Damn, I miss live music, but new releases from the Manuel Valera Trio and the Marvin Stamm/Mike Holober Quartet capture that frisson of excitement available only in a live setting.

Manuel Valera Trio
Live at L’Osons Jazz Club (Multiphonics Music)
A review
On Live at L’Osons Jazz Club, Manuel Valera, the distinguished Cuban pianist, is joined by bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr., and although this is the first time these three have played together in a trio format, they enjoy a genuine correspondence that sounds like they’ve been playing together for some time. Valera has a terrifically muscular but supple quality to his playing and a measure of confidence that reminds me of Thelonious Monk. Speaking of Monk, the trio does justice to his “Evidence,” with its start-and-stop rhythm, and Valera playfully makes the head tumble down a set of stairs, Slinky-like. The pianist shapes his improvisations beautifully, and while he seems in the moment and open to surprises, he always manages to land in a place that appears inevitable. The right hand is a wonder, but his sense of harmony—especially his use of rich, dense block chords—and rhythm are what really set the ears on fire. Highlights include Valera’s “Sun Prelude I – Mercury – The Messenger,” whose wonderfully eccentric melody, introduced on his album The Planets (reviewed here), invites exploration. On Valera’s supple “From the Ashes,” Nakamura delivers a worried bass line behind which Valera’s piano rises like a sun. Valera’s “Mirage” gets a stunning invocational bass solo from Nakamura, and his “Neptune,” another eccentric melody from The Planets, treats us to a ripping drum solo from Whitfield, Jr. Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Darn That Dream” offers a burning piano improv that includes a transcendent blizzard of block chords. Cole Porter “All of You” begins as a caress, turns into a celebration, then a conflagration, before returning to that caress. The nine tracks, five originals and four covers, offer about an hour’s worth of well-sequenced material in the hands of three guys who are bent on bringing everyone to their feet.

Marvin Stamm/Mike Holober Quartet
Live @ Maureen’s Jazz Cellar (Big Miles Music)
A review
Our early acquaintance on Musically Speaking with pianist/composer Mike Holober included an octet release (reviewed here) and a big band release (reviewed here). We were impressed with his qualities as a painterly composer/arranger and as a refined pianist, and Marvin Stamm put his stamp on both those projects on trumpet/flugelhorn and trumpet, respectively. On Live @ Maureen’s Jazz Cellar, we find the two of them back together, Stamm on flugelhorn this time around, joined by bassist Mike McGuirk and drummer Dennis Mackrel, in a much more relaxed, but no less polished live project. On the album’s seven tracks (eight if you count the one track available only on download), everybody gets a chance to blow, and everybody swings their way through the tunes. Their work reminded me of Art Blakey’s line about jazz washing away the dust of everyday life. There is no dust left on these guys or their listeners. Holober contributes two originals to the set: “Dear Virginia” opens with a tender piano solo, and its loving caress resounds with Holober’s diaphanous harmonies. “Morning Light” awakens in a reflective piano solo and gradually allows more light to enter, first in Stamm’s solo and then in Holober’s. Six standards fill out the album. Among the highlights are Horace Silver’s “Out of the Night Came You,” riding on a percolating bass and drums and featuring solos from one and all. Bronislau Kaper’s “Invitation” opens with a lovely bass solo before settling into a loping swing tempo illuminated with Holober’s stained-glass chording. Here, as elsewhere on the album, the clear communication among the four colleagues adds layers of satisfying interplay. The midtempo “All the Things You Are” includes a riotous conversation between Holober and Stamm as they run up and down melodic hills simultaneously. On Live @ Maureen’s Jazz Cellar, these four gentlemen devote themselves to sophisticated play, free from the need to impress and focused on an elevated level of communication with one another and with the attentive and justifiably appreciative audience. (You can preview and purchase the album via Holober’s Bandcamp page.)

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© 2020 Mel Minter