It’s not news that these are trying times on multiple levels, so I’ve been looking around for something uplifting and fun. While I was snuffling around like a pig hunting for truffles, two singles that give hope a shot in the arm magically appeared in my inbox: a hip hop single by Patrick Tripp titled “Walk with Me” and a pop tune from jazz pianist/composer Darrell Grant titled “Take Flight.”
Like Louis Armstrong, drummer/composer Matt Wilson makes no distinction between high art and low art. He probably wouldn’t even accept the use of those terms. So he finds beauty and meaning in just about any piece of music, and he manages to satisfy both the demanding jazz veteran and the tentative jazz newcomer. His quartet—composed of four leaders who manage to work together seamlessly—is always fun, always surprising, and always communicating something behind the music, as it does on the new release, Hug!
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These two new releases—El Suelo Mío from bassist/composer Jorge Roeder and Songs You Like a Lot from composer/arranger/conductor John Hollenbeck—sit at the opposite ends of the orchestral possibilities: solo and big band, respectively. Both have the juice to light up all your synapses.
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.
Joe Fiedler’s low-brass quartet Big Sackbut (sackbut: an early form of trombone used in Renaissance music) enjoys an amphibian lifestyle, while Dave Glasser’s quartet takes classic jazz into fresh territory.
