Grant Stewart
Next Spring
(Cellar Live)
Since 1992, tenor-saxophonist Grant Stewart has led over 20 albums. He has a warm sound and a thoughtful approach that is sometimes quite reminiscent to Sonny Rollins in the late 1950s. But as he shows throughout Next Spring, his playing is logical, a bit unpredictable, and personal.
Playing with a superior rhythm section consisting of pianist Tardo Hammer, bassist Paul Sikivie, and drummer Phil Stewart, the tenor is heard in prime form throughout the set. He picked out mostly superior obscurities to stretch out on including such highlights as “Kiss & Run,” Barry Harris’ ballad “Father Flanagan” (for Tommy Flanagan), Bob Mover’s “May In June,” and Thelonious Monk’s “Introspection.” On the latter (which has a Monk-inspired piano solo), Stewart’s playing is so effortless and even playful that one forgets all about the complexity of the music. Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” does not usually swing this hard. “I Know That You Know” is taken at a rapid tempo, and “I Won’t Dance” and “There’s No You” are joyfully revived.
In addition to Stewart’s confident solos which are a consistent joy, Hammer and Sikivie also make many individual statements that add to the momentum of the performances while drummer Stewart (Grant’s brother) keeps the music swinging and driving.
While Grant Stewart has recorded quite a few rewarding albums, Next Spring (available from www.cellarlive.com) is a fine place to start in exploring his playing.
Chick Corea/Brian Blade/Christian McBride
Trilogy 3
(Candid)
Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade first toured and recorded as a trio in 2010 and 2012, resulting in Trilogy and Trilogy 2. In early 2020 they came together again and had hopes of having a fairly permanent group since there was a strong musical chemistry and genuine affection between the three musicians. However their European tour was cut short due to the outbreak of COVID and, on Feb. 9, 2021, Corea passed away at the age of 79. His loss is still deeply felt throughout the music world and the liner notes to this recent release by McBride and Blade are often quite touching.
Trilogy 3, a single CD, has been compiled from the truncated European tour. The music is as rewarding and full of enthusiastic explorations as one would hope. The unit performs Corea’s “Humpty Dumpty,” “Windows,” and “Spanish Song,” two songs by Thelonious Monk (whose name is misspelled “Thelonius”), an uptempo and adventurous version of Bud Powell’s “Tempus Fugit,” a classical piece by Scarlatti, and the standard “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.” The latter starts out quite unrecognizable during an interlude by Corea before the theme emerges and the trio gets swinging.
Corea sounds inspired by his sidemen and vice versa and they really stretch out during these eight performances, five of which are over nine minutes long and another one being just eight seconds short. Trilogy 3, which is available from www.amazon.com and www.candidrecords.shop.musictoday.com, holds its own with its predecessors and shows that the pianist was still very much in its prime up until the end.
David Becker/Paul Wertico
Tuxedo Man
(New Sun)
David Becker first became known as the guitarist-leader of the David Becker Tribute, a popular and inventive fusion band that was active during the 1980s and ’90s. Since then he has continued to grow as an improviser and has displayed impressive versatility.
Tuxedo Man is particularly unusual for (other than the title cut) it is a set of free improvisations by Becker and drummer-percussionist Paul Wertico. The duo had never played together before although they were familiar with each other’s music. The two musicians simply went into the studio and played. The five improvs include the one-chord jam “The Hunt,” a drum solo that sounds a bit like a train (“Crazy Time”), an assertive “Spiders On Drugs,” the funky and rockish “Cicadas & Beans,” and “The Catch” which alternates between two chords. In addition, “Tuxedo Man” is a peaceful ballad written in tribute to Becker’s late cat that has electronic wind sounds in the background. Becker plays acoustic and electric guitars, a guitar sitar and a synthesizer while Wertico utilizes a large assortment of percussion instruments.
The final selection, “All In Good Time” is quite unique for it is an overdub of all six selections which are heard at once. While the results are pretty free, the mellow playing of Becker on “Tuxedo Man” keeps things relatively calm. Somehow, it all works.
Tuxedo Man is available from www.gadrecords.pl.
Nadav Remez
Summit
(Self-Released)
Nadav Remez is a jazz guitarist with his own personal sound and an open-minded approach that blends together post-bop jazz and fusion with the influence of music from the Middle East. He has led several albums of his own since 2011.
Summit features Remez heading a quintet also including Gregory Tardy on tenor and clarinet, pianist Guy Moskovich, bassist Ben Tiberio, and drummer David Sirkis. They perform nine of the leader’s originals and three obscurities including the traditional “Adon Olam.” The music explores a variety of moods, from the heated “The Awakening” and the passionate “Shedemati” (the latter features some impressive clarinet playing by Tardy) to the haunting “King Tut,” the fusion ensemble piece “Soon,” a rhythmically complex “Hinach Yaffa Raayati,” a wistful “Beyond,” and the charming “Tango For Greg.” In addition to Remez and Tardy, pianist Moskovich contributes concise but creative solos while Tiberio and Sirkis keep the varied grooves infectious.
The music on Summit (available from www.amazon.com and www.nadavremez.com) defies simple classification and can just loosely be called high-quality modern jazz. It serves as an excellent introduction to the creative guitar playing and writing of Naday Remez.
Affinity Trio
New Outlook
(Origin)
In 2022, the Affinity Trio (which is comprised of trumpeter Eric Jacobson, pianist Pamela York, and bassist Clay Schaub), recorded their debut recording as a group: Hindsight. New Outlook has the same Chicago-based musicians (who contributed one original apiece) returning to the studio to perform their new material, four standards, and two lesser-known but worthy numbers.
Their music is a lively brand of straight-ahead jazz played with joy and excellent musicianship. Jacobson’s “Onward” leads off the set with a minor-toned and boppish swinger. While “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” is modernized slightly, it retains its roots in swing during a medium-slow performance. York’s “New Outlook” is a modern jazz waltz which generates some heat while Sam Jones’ blues-with-a-bridge “Bittersweet” receives a welcome revival.
A chorus of Oscar Peterson’s “Hymn To Freedom” leads into “A Child Is Born” which has some beautiful ballad playing by Jacobson. The other selections are Larry Willis’ modern hard bop tune “To Wisdom: The Prize,” a rapid rendition of “Lover,” Schaub’s thoughtful ballad “Shadow Cather,” and Kenny Dorham’s “Una Mas.”
The lack of drums gives the trio the feel of chamber jazz while the results are as soulful and swinging as the music deserves. New Outlook (available from www.affinitytrio.com and www.originarts.com) is heartily recommended.
Tierney Sutton
Talking To The Sun
(Gemini)
Listeners used to hearing Tierney Sutton (arguably Los Angeles’ top female jazz singer) in a quartet with pianist Christian Jacob, drummer Ray Brinker, and either Kevin Axt or Trey Henry on bass will be a bit surprised by Talking To The Sun. This is a very different Tierney Sutton album.
The singer is joined by Benoit Sourisse on piano and organ, drummer-percussionist Andre Charlier, and her husband guitarist Serge Merlaud. In addition to a pair of songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim (including a well disguised “Modinha”), the standard “Bluesette,” two other Brazilian numbers, and “I Wish You Love,” the group performs five originals by Charlier and Sourisse. The latter pieces can be considered art songs with Ms. Sutton often singing fairly straight in unisons with either piano or guitar.
The intimate set leaves plenty of space for the music to breathe. Tierney Sutton’s occasional scatting is as exquisite as ever. While many of the performances are taken at slower tempos, Djavan Viana’s “Flor De Lis” (which has fine spots for guitar, organ, scatting, and even whistling) is performed as a fast bossa-nova, “Laptop Choro” (which purposely speeds up as it progresses) is a bit eccentric, and “Bluesette” swings hard.
Throughout Talking To The Sun (which is available from www.tierneysutton.com and www.amazon.com), Tierney Sutton singing is flexible, creative and unpredictable as is the music in general. This is a release well worth exploring.
Charles Lloyd
Figure In Blue
(Blue Note)
Charles Lloyd, who is now 87, is a bit of a wonder. On tenor he has retained his sound from the 1960s and plays without any hesitation or sign of his age. While he emphasizes ballads and slower tempos and his playing has become quite spiritual and thoughtful, he is still capable of playing stunning double-time runs when he feels that it serves the music. And Lloyd has been quite prolific in recent years in both the number of his concert and club performances and his recordings.
Figure In Blue is a two-CD set that features Lloyd in a bassless and drumless trio with pianist Jason Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell. Other than the spiritual “Abide With Me” which opens the program, two Duke Ellington songs (“Heaven” and “Black Beauty” which is given a lovely melody reading), and a very slow and sensitive rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere,” all of the songs are his originals. Many are taken either out-of-tempo or quite slow which gives such selections as “Hina Hanta, the way of peace,” “Desolation Sound,” and “The Ghost Of Lady Day” a dreamlike quality almost suitable for meditation. Sewell’s guitar is a major asset, adding an electronic atmosphere to some numbers and making “Chulahoma” quite bluesy. Moran displays plenty of versatility and inspires Lloyd both in his accompaniment and interplay with the tenor.
There are some exceptions to the laidback approach, particularly the fairly free playing on the episodic “Ruminations” and the rollicking and playful “Blues For Langston” which features Sewell’s guitar and Lloyd’s flute. But in general, Figure In Blue is filled with quiet emotion. Lloyd does not rush his message, and he displays inner peace with an occasional bit of heat, always with a youthful spirit. This fine release is available from www.amazon.com.
Meegan and Tobin
Keep On Movin’
(Audio Network)
Jeff Meegan and David Tobin have been writing songs together for 15 years despite living thousands of miles apart. Meegan, who is also a singer, is based in Chicago while Tobin lives in London. Jointly they have composed over 1,000 works in a wide variety of styles including swing, pop, folk, funk, classical music, and New Orleans jazz and blues. Their songs have been in feature films, documentaries, television, and even BBC radio dramas.
Along the way they have written for a series of big band albums of which Keep On Movin’ is their latest. The eight songs on this digital release sound like vintage standards but are actually fairly recent. The focus is mostly on swingers that are given optimistic lyrics. Unfortunately there are very few solos and all are brief but the singing by Jeff Meegan, Steve Memmolo, and Sara Niemietz is first-class and enthusiastic. The ensembles (with orchestrations by Callum Au, Harley Harrison, and Martin Williams) are consistently exciting with the studio musicians (a big band with occasional strings) playing flawlessly.
Keep On Movin’ has several songs that other singers might want to cover including “Who’d Have Believed,” “No Getting Over You,” and the exuberant “Dance.” Although I wish that some of the horn players had opportunities to stretch out and solo (the eight songs average around three minutes apiece), the music overall is quite fun and easily recommended to big band fans who want to hear fresh material. Keep On Movin’ can be found on all of the usual digital outlets.
Myra Murphy and Keith Snyder
Saudade: Songs In The Key Of Longing
(Self-Released)
Myra Murphy is a jazz pianist, singer and poet. She has a haunting voice and is an adventurous pianist. The combination of those two talents often results in unique music even when she is interpreting a standard.
On Saudade, Ms. Murphy performs duets with bassist Keith Snyder, mostly interpreting well-known songs with the exceptions being Robert Glasper’s “One for ‘Grew,” Steve Swallow’s “Falling Grace” (a near-standard), and Djavan’s “Flor De Lis.” While she sings on the great majority of the selections, some of Myra Murphy’s vocals are brief, sharing the spotlight with her piano. On a few selections, her sincere and quietly emotional vocalizing is “accompanied” by some complex piano playing with “If You Could See Me Now” finding her often out-of-tempo with her voice being joined by some rather dissonant chords. While most of the lyrics have something to do with love and desire and the tempos tend to be medium-slow, s few are taken at a faster pace and are more light-hearted.
Numbers such as “All Blues,” “It’s Easy To Remember,” Herbie Hancock’s “Chan’s Song,” and “Wild Is The Wind” are given fresh interpretations that have surprising twists and turns. With bassist Snyder contributing alert accompaniment and occasional solos, Myra Murphy’s atmospheric Saudade deserves several close listens. It is available from www.myramurphymusic.com and www.amazon.com.
Louis Rosen
American Sunset
(Di-Tone Records)
It would not be an understatement to say that the election of Donald Trump as president for a second term was a rather depressing event for many Americans. That was certainly true for singer-songwriter Louis Rosen who wrote the pieces on American Sunset (with one exception) after the 2024 election and before the inauguration.
With the sensitive accompaniment of pianist Charity Wicks, bassist Pete Donovan, and drummer Andy Blanco (who occasionally plays vibes), Rosen sings and talks his lyrics while also contributing some acoustic guitar. The pieces, which deal with the end of The American dream, range from disbelief at people voting against their own self-interests to the triumph of greed and the destruction of freedom in this country. While “And Still I Sing” and “The Wheel Goes ‘Round” have a little bit of optimism that things will change again in the right direction and some pieces are about trying to escape the constant bad news, other numbers are filled with the hopeless feeling that one feels at the reality of the situation. Occasionally there is a bit of satire. Most depressing is “Executive Orders” which has Rosen simply reading each of Trump’s executive orders from his first three months in office.
There are a few instrumentals including a second version of “Executive Orders” that features pianist Wicks but American Sunset is primarily for those who may be overlooking what is happening to this country (it is worse than Louis Rosen originally predicted) or want a historical record of the events from the first half of 2025. This significant jazz protest album is available from www.louisrosen.com.
Al Muirhead
The Canada Sessions Vol. II.
(Chronograph Records)
Al Muirhead has had quite a long career in Canada as a session and studio trumpeter and an arranger-composer, appearing in a wide variety of settings from the age of ten. He was so busy that he did not record his first album as a leader until 2014 when he was already 79. The Canada Sessions Vol. II. is his sixth and dates from 2024-25 when he was turning 90.
While his solos are generally short and melodic, there is no way that any listener would guess Muirhead’s age from these performances. Whether playing trumpet, flugelhorn or bass trumpet, Muirhead displays a clear tone, a powerful style, and an obvious love for the eight standards he performs which are drawn from five different sessions.
Muirhead is featured on a duet with pianist Hilario Duran, and in trios with pianists Robi Botos, Will Bonness, Mark Limacher, and Kristian Alexandrov, flugelhornist Jens Lindemann, singer-guitarist Jocelyn Gould, bassist Mike Downes, and singer Caity Gyorgy. He gives warm treatments to such numbers as “Dancing On The Ceiling,” “My Shining Hour,” “More Than You Know,” and “I Thought About You” while generously featuring the other players.
The music is both swinging and lyrical with Al Muirhead taking his place next to Doc Cheatham and Doc Severinsen as one of the very few trumpeters who was still in his playing prime as he passed 90. The Canada Sessions Vol. II. is available from www.chronojazz.com.
Gabe Katell
Hear, It Is
(Self-Released)
Gabe Katell, a baritone-saxophonist who considers Nick Brignola to be his main influence, makes his recording debut as a leader on Hear, It Is. He is joined by pianist Adam Hersh, bassist Kevin Axt, and drummer Kevin van den Elzen for a swinging set comprised of ten jazz standards arranged by Hersh.
Katell has a deep and attractive tone on the baritone, certainly knows the bebop vocabulary, and is quite fluent. He is also skilled as a flutist. Hersh, who occasionally hints at early McCoy Tyner, has his own sound on the piano while Axt (who has been in great demand for years) and van den Elzen swing hard throughout the set.
The songs are all superior tunes and the quartet digs in and comes up with consistently colorful and inventive solos within the hard bop tradition. Beginning with Cedar Walton’s medium-tempo blues “Midnight Waltz,” the program includes such tunes as Charlie Parker’s “Dewey Square,” a medium-tempo version of “What’s New,” Sam Jones’ classic “Unit 7,” an uptempo “Nica’s Dream,” and “Half Nelson” which serves as a joyful closer. While he is mostly heard on baritone, Gabe Katell plays flute on three numbers including “I Wish I Knew” and “I Hear A Rhapsody.” Occasionally he overdubs his second horn on melody statements (on “Unit 7” he plays the harmony parts on clarinet) but otherwise this is a spontaneous quartet date.
The playing throughout is first-rate and inventive. Gabe Katell’s impressive Hear, It Is (which has been made available on all of the usual streaming services) makes one look forward to his future projects as a leader.
Hank Hehmsoth & Double Vision
Blu-Escape
(Self-Released)
Hank Hehmsoth is a jazz pianist with his own voice, an arranger-composer, and an educator (Professor of Practice at Texas State for 28 years) who is also a very skilled visual artist, a producer, researcher, historian and storyteller. His career has had many memorable and somewhat unique highlights including touring extensively with Christopher Cross, performing with tenor great Joe Henderson on a televised program, giving piano lessons to actor Jack Lemmon, subbing for an ill Count Basie with his big band, and playing duets of swing standards with opera singer Beverly Sills.
On Blu-Escape, Hehmsoth co-leads a quartet with tenor-saxophonist and flutist John Mills that also includes bassist Utah Hamrick, and drummer Aaron Easley. The group performs nine of the pianist’s originals which are harmonically sophisticated and full of subtle surprises. Each selection is connected to one of his abstract paintings.
The album begins with “Blu-Escape,” a piece with a conversational theme that might remind some of Wayne Shorter. “Chernobyl Cha Cha” has bassist Hamrick sounding as if he is tip toeing and it is easy to imagine a person dancing during the melody statement. “Phooie” is a rarity, a funky atonal piece that is strangely catchy. “Sophie’s Dance” is a danceable jazz waltz that is dedicated to the pianist’s favorite cat. “Code Blue” has plenty of forward determination and “Unwritten” is quite somber and built from dense tone clusters while “Cabo” is a Latin piece in the tradition of early Chick Corea; the flute and piano solos are noteworthy. The set concludes with the wistful and romantic “Turquoise Rendezvous” and the modern rumba “Roomba’s Rumble.”
The many mood and style changes heard throughout Blu-Escape will keep one guessing and consistently enthralled as will the solos of Hehmsoth (who sounds unlike anyone else), Mills and Hamrick. Blu-Escape, which is available from www.hanksjazz.com, is well worth exploring.
Victor Janusz
Tickling Divas
(Self-Released)
A talented singer-songwriter, Victor Janusz has recorded a series of stimulating and thought-provoking albums. Tickling Divas is a bit different, not in the quality but in the fact that Janusz’s singing is not the main focus on the CD. Instead, his originals are interpreted by a variety of fine vocalists who have a real feel for his lyrics. Janusz, who has one solo vocal (“Blues For A Crow”) and is part of four vocal duets, is in the backup group on piano which also includes bassist Spencer Hoveskeland, Jacques Willis on drums and vibes, saxophonist Medearis Dixson, percussionist Steve White, and trumpeter Jason Chambliss.
Leah Stillwell sounds a bit mournful on “Falling in Lonely,” Amber Wolfe is fearless on the menacing strut “Bad Neighborhood,” and Ade A. Connere displays an impressive voice on the poppish “Pinkaboo.” “It’s Phoenicia” (which has Janusz interacting vocally with singer Phoenicia) sounds a bit like 1920s German cabaret while Arwen Dewey is energetic on “Musique Du Film.” The other selections, a dramatic “Brokeback Bumblebee,” “C3Q” (an eccentric transformation of “We Three Kings”), and “Fruitcake Blues” (listed as a bonus track) have the composer joining in with Elizabeth Carpenter, Angie Louise and Duffy Bishop.
The intriguing music straddles the boundaries between cabaret, show music and jazz. Tickling Divas is available from www.victorjanusz.bandcamp.com.