Let’s start with a confession: I got to hear fewer jazz albums this year than in any year in the past two decades. Which is a shame, because there was a TON of worthwhile music released during the year. My crazy schedule in 2016 often limited me to snippets or tracks from discs that I vowed to get back to, but never did. So, here’s my list of the best albums that I actually got to hear during the year. Also, there’s a track from an extremely promising young artist, who needs to put more on the market, ASAP; a couple of outstanding 2015 releases that didn’t catch my ear until 2016; and finally, a few of the many fine 2016 releases that I plan to catch up with in January:
ALBUM
ARTIST
LABEL
ArtScience
Robert Glasper
Blue Note
Back Home
Melissa Aldana
Wommusic
Beginning of a Memory
Matt Wilson
Palmetto
Book of Intuition
Kenny Barron Trio
Impulse
Chasing After the Wind
Gregory Tardy
Steeplechase
Convergence
Warren Wolf
Mack Avenue
Days Like This
Melissa Morgan
CD Baby
Do Your Dance
Kenny Garrett
Mack Avenue
Feet in the Mud
Mimi Jones
Hot Tone
In Movement
DeJohnette, Coltrane and Garrison
ECM
Jersey Cat
Freddie Hendrix
Sunnyside
Live at Maxwell’s
DE3
Sunnyside
Nihil Novi
Marcus Strickland
Revive/Blue Note
Notes from New York
Bill Charlap
Impulse
Once and Future
Brian Charette
Posi-Tone
Perfection
Murray, Allen and Carrington
Motema
Presented by the Side Door Jazz Club
Black Art Jazz Collective
Sunnyside
Restless Idealism
Roxy Coss
Origin
Soul Tree
Ed Cherry
Posi-Tone
The Sound of Red
Rene Marie
Motema
Stranger Days
Adam O’Farrill
Sunnyside
Take Me to the Alley
Gregory Porter
Blue Note
TriAngular III
Ralph Peterson Trio
Onyx/Truth Revolution
The Way We Play
Marquis Hill
Concord
Written in The Rocks
Renee Rosnes
Smoke Sessions
2016’s most compelling single in search of an album:
“Chicken Day” – Harvey Cummings II
Two 2015 albums (heard in 2016) that deserved to be on last year’s list:
Back to the City – Amos Hoffman (CD Baby)
Some Morning – Kim Nazarian (CD Baby)
Probably excellent 2016 albums that I look forward to hearing as soon as possible:
The AJF is the largest free jazz festival in the Southeast. It has been a part of The ATL’s Memorial Day Weekend celebration since the late 70’s. And beginning this Friday, May 27th, the 39th edition of the AJFwill kick off in its usual location, Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. It runs through Sunday, May 29th.
Performances will take place on three separate stages: the Locals Stage will feature Atlanta area favorites such as vocalist Alex Lattimore and pianist Joe Alterman. The International Stage will have well-known jazz headliners from outside of the U.S., such as Caribbean trumpeter Etienne Charles and renowned Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias. The Main Stage features its usual combination of up and coming stars and legends, with super group Next Collective, Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter and the venerable saxophonist Benny Golson leading a very impressive lineup.
Alex Lattimore
My May 26th show is designed to get those heading to the festival in the mood for the great weekend of music ahead. But be warned – with the great cuts I plan on playing and with Atlanta being a short car ride away from Charlotte, you may be inspired to change your weekend plans and join us in Piedmont Park. If you do, stop by and say “Hello”!
I know that I’ve usually posted a few AJF related items by this point, with the Festival coming in two weeks but it’s been a very busy year. But don’t mistake my relative silence for absence. Of COURSE the CurtJazz crew will be there, in Piedmont Park this Memorial Day weekend – diggin’ the music, chatting with the artists and reporting back on what’s happening.
So in the spirit of better late than never, here’s this year’s full lineup for the 39th Atlanta Jazz Festival, from Friday, May 27 – Sunday, May 29. I’ll be following up over the next two weeks with individual reports, as usual. Hope to see you there!
When I first started featuring Christmas and Holiday Season Jazz on my web station, Curt’s Cafe Noir, in 2005, it took a bit of work to find sufficiently diverse jazz content to allow the station to run all Holiday music. Now, ten years later, there’s so much music to choose from, from so many different sources, that I can program 24 hours of Holiday Jazz and afford to be selective.
And this season has brought another crop of strong and varied Christmas Jazz Albums. Here are samples from a few of my favorites that you’ll hear on Curt’s Cafe Noir’s 24/7 JazzMas Party, through December 26. As an extra bonus, we have the album that is my favorite new seasonal offering, Etienne Charles’ Creole Christmas, in an exciting live version, recorded at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, in New York City.
I WANNA BE EVIL (With Love to Eartha Kitt) – Motéma Records MTM-129 www.motema.comI’d Rather Be Burned As a Witch; C’est Si Bon; Oh, John; Let’s Do It; Peel Me a Grape; My Heart Belongs to Daddy; I Wanna Be Evil; Come On-a My House; Santa Baby; Weekend
PERSONNEL: René Marie, vocals; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Adrian Cunningham, tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute; Etienne Charles, trumpet, percussion; Kevin Bales, piano; Elias Bailey, bass; Quentin Baxter, drums, percussion, washboard
By Curtis Davenport
Leave it to René Marie to wreck my plans. At this point in the year, I felt fairly comfortable with my personal list of the best jazz albums that I’d heard in 2013. Now along comes Ms. Marie with I Wanna Be Evil, a tribute the immortal Eartha Kitt.
Most serious jazz fans are by now familiar with much of René Marie’s back story. The Virginia native did not sing professionally until age 42; after raising her sons who encouraged their mother to finally pursue her dream. Singing represented freedom for Ms. Marie in many ways. She married young and spent many years feeling oppressed in her marriage and by the strict conservatism of the religion that she practiced during those years. I’ve watched Ms. Marie since she first came on the scene and it has been fascinating to watch her artistic growth, from the tentative joy of her debut album, How Can I Keep From Singing to the unexpected brilliance of Vertigo; to her arresting “comeback” after some controversy, with Voice of My Beautiful Country, to this new album where she demonstrates that any of her past shackles have been cast aside as she revels in her hard-earned personal and artistic independence.
Ms. Marie had sworn to never do a tribute album but the lure of Ms. Kitt, who not coincidentally also courted a bit of controversy in her day, was too great to resist. To her credit, Marie has avoided impersonations of the legendary diva but instead has taken a fresh look at some of the tunes associated with her. She is aided by stellar work from her musicians, especially the horn section of reedman Adrian Cunningham, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and trumpeter/arranger Etienne Charles, whose charts are consistently on the money. “I’d Rather be Burned As a Witch” sets the table perfectly as the lyric practically gives Ms. Marie’s rationale for everything that follows it on the album, with a hard swinging vocal, a horn arrangement where three do the work of a big band, punctuated by a growling statement by Mr. Gordon. “Let’s Do It” after a sedate reading of the rarely heard verse, turns on the bass riff from Horace Silver’s “Señor Blues”, set by Elias Bailey and a driving beat from Quentin Baxter. Marie then mines this usually sly and sedate Porter tune for all the soul that its worth as she sings with grittiness that she has rarely displayed on record. She is pushed there by Gordon who makes his ‘bone talk like a preacher telling the truth on Sunday morning. The other Porter chestnut, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” gets perhaps the most Kitt-like reading as Marie slinks through the lyric, raising temperatures during the coda as she repeats increasingly intense variations on the phrase “…’cause daddy treats it so well…”. The title track is tongue-in-cheek fun where Marie has a ball with the lyric and the musicians drop some great solo turns (Mr. Charles’ gifts as a horn arranger are a revelation). Marie and company even tackle that most indelible of Kitt songs, “Santa Baby”. They slow it down to a sensual crawl, with just Bales, Bailey and Charles’ trumpet accompanying the vocalist’s breathy smolder. If I’m Santa, I would answer this request first.
The set concludes with the album’s only original composition, “Weekend” a compelling piece by Ms. Marie that touches on some very adult issues. It is made more interesting by the fact that it does not pass judgment on any of its characters nor does it offer a definitive conclusion. Marie tells the story and then leaves it to the listener to answer the questions, which makes the track all the more memorable.
I Wanna Be Evil may have come late to the 2013 party but it was worth the wait. It’s easily one of the best albums of the year and perhaps the best of René Marie’s relatively short but consistently impressive career.
Here’s a compilation list of our choices for the Best Jazz Albums of 2013 from our three prior Best of the Year posts. A click on the links in each title will take you to the Amazon or CD Baby page for each album (a great way to spend those gift cards you may have gotten from Santa).
Tracks from all of the albums listed here will be featured on Curt’s Café Noir WebJazz Radio, starting on December 27, 2013 and into January 2014 as part of our Year End / New Year programming. Click HERE to go to the station and listen. It’s Free!
May you all have a happy, prosperous and jazz filled 2014!
I have to confess that this year’s list of the best jazz albums feels somehow incomplete. The albums on the first list, posted in early August and the ones in this article are all outstanding but as much as I get to hear, due to my vocation and avocation, I still have missed so much this year.
In part, this is a good thing because artists now have more freedom than ever to self produce and release their works without having to beg for record company crumbs. However, one of the bad things is that the distribution of these projects often leaves much to be desired. So there’s much out there that I’ve heard of but haven’t been able to get my hands on in any format. Something tells me my “Ones I’ve Missed” list in 2014 is going to be pretty large.
That being said, here are the favorite releases that I’ve heard since July. As always, they are in alphabetical order by album title, not preference:
It’s a marriage of several disparate elements that come together to create musical perfection: Ms. Mitchell’s flute playing off of Jason Adasiewicz’s vibes, producing the sound that gives the group its name; their AACM sensibility, leavened by a hint of Chicago Soul and some of the best compositions that I’ve ever heard from Ms. Mitchell. They have managed to stay true to their artistic roots yet make the music more accessible. No small feat but they pull it off with aplomb.
Mr. Charles, a young trumpet player originally from Trinidad, creates a successful marriage of straight ahead jazz and the musical styles of the Caribbean and New Orleans. Many have tried to do the same thing with only moderate success. Etienne Charles nails it, big time. Those who want to understand how to fuse groove and jazz without “selling out” should use this disc as a primer. (Read my full review for Jazz Inside MagazineHERE.)
Leave it to Rene Marie to wait until the tail end of the year to release a masterpiece. She clearly has a strong affinity for her subject and instead of imitating the legendary performer; she draws Ms. Kitt’s style inside of her own and creates some fresh renditions of some of Eartha’s classics. She also creates a smoldering original tune “Weekend” which might have made even the legendary Kitt blush. Ms. Marie’s performances are sexy, playful, charming, foreboding and thought-provoking; often at the same time. It’s Ms. Marie’s best album since Vertigo and it may even top that classic.
With his third outstanding album in three years, Mr. Porter continues to carve out a niche for himself as either the most soulful jazz singer or the jazziest soul singer working today. Porter has melded the low-key sensitivity of Bill Withers to the jazz sensibility of a young Al Jarreau. He is also a damn good composer, dropping a few of his own tunes on this album, such as “Hey Laura” and “Brown Grass” that I expect to hear being covered by other singers in the near future. Plus he does a dynamite cover of one of my faves from Max Roach and Abby Lincoln, “Lonesome Lover”. Will Porter take home the Grammy this year? Knowing Grammy’s unpredictability, who knows? But I think that he has a good shot in at least one of the two categories that he’s nominated in.
The prodigiously gifted drummer takes us all over the jazz map in a little over 50 minutes; from swing to post-bop, to free, with numerous stops in between. Her working band of three years, which includes pianist Myra Melford; bassist Todd Sickafoose and the wonderful violinist Jenny Scheinman, has coalesced into a solid unit who play off of each other incredibly well. Their musical trust for each other has allowed them to bring out the best in Ms. Miller’s compositions and for them to turn performances in different directions on a dime.
It’s no surprise that Mr. McBride is a fan of James Brown, because he is the hardest working bassist in jazz. Besides being the first call sideman for almost everyone in jazz today, he managed also to release two albums in 2013 under his own name, one with his Inside Straight aggregation and the other was this album, a back to basics trio date with two very exciting young cohorts; pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. There’s nothing new here but what they do, they do stunningly well. It’s three world-class musicians, playing some standards, some originals and a couple of fun surprises. I hope that this isn’t just a one-off but if it is, it’s an impressive one.
What has gotten into Ahmad Jamal? All of a sudden, in his eighties, Miles Davis’ favorite pianist has become not only incredibly relevant again but I daresay, downright funky. First on last year’s Blue Moon and now on Saturday Morning. Egged on by the percolating grooves laid down by bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Herlin Riley, the octogenarian reminds Robert Glasper and Co., where they got it from. His piano lines are still tasty and tasteful and not the least bit stale. Long live Mr. Jamal, I hope that he keeps going and continues to create music like this for many years to come.
This album is here for two reasons: one is its remarkable leader, who I consider to be one of the best jazz pianists of his generation. Mr. Chestnut is the natural successor to Bobby Timmons in the “Soulful Jazz Pianist” category and his teaming over the last few years with bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Willie Jones III seems to have re-energized him. The second reason is the presence of trumpeter Freddie Hendrix on this album. Mr. Hendrix is a remarkably talented musician who has been criminally under recorded. In fact, as of this writing, he has yet to lead a recording date. Hendrix stylistically (and even physically, somewhat) reminds me of another more well-known jazz trumpeter with the same first name and last initial. Throughout the album, he threatens to steal the show from the leader and at times, he does. And for bonus points, Chestnut and Jones used Max Roach’s rare album Drums Unlimitedas an inspiration for the cover. Very cool indeed!
Here’s another jazz veteran undergoing a bit of a career renaissance. The youngest of the Heath Brothers has recorded abundantly as a sideman on some of jazz’s greatest albums and quite a bit with his brothers over the years but very little as a leader. So here we have the 78-year-old “Tootie” working with relative youngsters Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus on piano and NY avant-garde scene darling Ben Street on bass. On paper it sounds like a mismatch but in reality it is pure magic. Tootie will never be accused of being a bombastic drummer but everything he does is exactly as it should be. You can hear Mr. Heath taking care of his musical partners and vice versa. This is one of the most interesting working trios out there today. If you like this, check out this same group’s 2010 live recording from NYC’s Smalls Jazz Club.
Vibraphonist Wolf’s follow up to his Mack Avenue debut is the most mature and cohesive album of his burgeoning young career. Split between tracks with his working band and an all-star group, Wolf’s growth as a musician, composer and arranger are all evident from first note to last. (Read my full review for Jazz Inside MagazineHERE.)
And in case you’ve forgotten, here are the albums/artists who were included in our post Best Jazz of 2013 (So Far), which first appeared in August 2013:
And I’m still not done! There will be one more post in which we will bring you a few more albums from 2013, that I still cannot get out of my head. Plus, in what has become an annual tradition, we will pay homage to some albums from 2012 that I somehow managed to miss until 2013.
As always, your comments, for and against, are welcome but spam is not.
Etienne Charles will be appearing tonight, Friday, 11/8 at SubCulture in NYC. Two shows, at 7:30 & 10 pm. Check him out if you’re in the Big Apple this evening!
CREOLE SOUL – Culture Shock Music EC004 www.etiennecharles.comCreole (intro); Creole; The Folks; You Don’t Love Me; Roots; Memories; Green Chimneys; Turn Your Lights Down Low; Midnight; Close Your Eyes; Doin’ The Thing
PERSONNEL: Etienne Charles, trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion; Brian Hogans, alto saxophone; Obed Calvaire, drums; Jacques Schwarz-Bart, tenor saxophone; Kris Bowers, piano, fender rhodes; Ben Williams, bass; Erol Josué, vocals; Daniel Sadownick, percussion, vocals; D’Achee, percussion, vocals; Alex Wintz, guitar
By Curtis Davenport
One of the reasons that jazz is struggling with the public lately, is a lack of fresh voices. Whether it’s intentional or not, so many artists have a sound that is extremely derivative of someone who came before them. We who write about the music often aren’t much help as we rush to crown “the next Miles”, “the…
CREOLE SOUL – Culture Shock Music EC004 www.etiennecharles.comCreole (intro); Creole; The Folks; You Don’t Love Me; Roots; Memories; Green Chimneys; Turn Your Lights Down Low; Midnight; Close Your Eyes; Doin’ The Thing
PERSONNEL: Etienne Charles, trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion; Brian Hogans, alto saxophone; Obed Calvaire, drums; Jacques Schwarz-Bart, tenor saxophone; Kris Bowers, piano, fender rhodes; Ben Williams, bass; Erol Josué, vocals; Daniel Sadownick, percussion, vocals; D’Achee, percussion, vocals; Alex Wintz, guitar
By Curtis Davenport
One of the reasons that jazz is struggling with the public lately, is a lack of fresh voices. Whether it’s intentional or not, so many artists have a sound that is extremely derivative of someone who came before them. We who write about the music often aren’t much help as we rush to crown “the next Miles”, “the next Hubbard”, “the next Wynton”. So when I hear someone who doesn’t sound like everyone else, I sit up and take notice. Etienne Charles, a 30 year-old trumpet player, originally from Trinidad, has caught my attention.
What differentiates Mr. Charles from some of his contemporaries is his use of rhythm. This is not something that has happened overnight, at least on his recordings. This is Charles fourth album. In the same way that Robert Glasper has evolved into what is now his signature sound; Mr. Charles developed what we hear on Creole Soulover the course of his previous discs. A graduate of Julliard and of Florida State University where he was mentored by pianist Marcus Roberts, Mr. Charles not surprisingly, evinced no small amount of Marsalis family influence in his early work. That is, much of it was rooted in the hard-driving post bop of the ‘60’s. The music was well-played and demonstrated Mr. Charles considerable prowess on his instrument but it did get lost in the straight-ahead shuffle. But there were always these moments on Culture Shock, Folklore and Kaiso, where Charles would delve deeply into the music of his Caribbean roots. I found those to be the most interesting tracks on those albums. On this new album Etienne Charles takes the next step and he has created a sound that while still firmly rooted in jazz, is also deeply infused with the music of Trinidad, Martinique, New Orleans and a few other stops in between.
You know that you’re in for something different from the opening track “Creole”, which features a brief introduction by voodoo priest Erol Josué delivering a chant in the Haitian Creole language, Kweyol. The main part of track then jumps off, riding on Alex Wintz’s guitar lines and a driving kongo groove. Charles then joins in with a trumpet statement that is equal parts rhythmic and majestic. Brian Hogans picks up the same line on the alto sax and takes it to the next level. Then Kris Bowers’ Fender Rhodes settles the proceedings just enough to keep them from boiling over too quickly. All the while Josué’s vocals, Wintz’s guitar and the beat keep are making the song captivating and refreshingly different. “The Folks”, is a soulful groove, mellower than the opener but still memorable, due again to Mr. Charles’ trumpet, Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s tenor and Bowers’ burbling Rhodes, which quietly sets the background throughout much of the album. Then there’s “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No), a Bo Diddley tune that became a rocksteady hit in the ‘60’s. Charles keeps the infectious beat, adds a full horn line and gives this tune perhaps its third life. I could easily see a hip club DJ throwing it in the mix, even though it is still very much a jazz tune. Mr. Charles also has roots in Martinique, which he pays tribute to on “Roots” an up-tempo jazz tune with a touch of the bel-air beat that Martinique is known for and a vocal chant break in the middle. Also among the cover tunes is Monk’s “Green Chimneys” imagined here with a very subtle calypso beat which sounds very interesting against Bowers dancing piano chords. And Bob Marley’s “Turn Your Lights Down Low” interpreted as reggae-jazz, with Charles soothing flugelhorn leading the way.
Creole Soulis a rousing success because Etienne Charles doesn’t try to force the marriage of jazz and other musical genres. He lets it happen naturally, employing other young musicians who are completely on board with his vision. They have created something that is different and exciting. Creole Soulis jazz that takes the two words of its title seriously and that’s what makes it distinctive.
RT @HowieRose: I’m sure there are hurdles that would need to be cleared, but if the WBC could be moved to November, a player suffering an 8… 1 week ago
Let’s start with a confession: I got to hear fewer jazz albums this year than in any year in the past two decades. Which is a shame, because there was a TON of worthwhile music released during the year. My crazy schedule in 2016 often limited me to snippets or tracks from discs that I vowed to get back to, but never did. So, here’s my list of the best albums that I actually got to hear during the year. Also, there’s a track from an extremely promising young artist, who needs to put more on the market, ASAP; a couple of outstanding 2015 releases that didn’t catch my ear until 2016; and finally, a few of the many fine 2016 releases that I plan to catch up with in January:
I’ve covered the 
I know that I’ve usually posted a few AJF related items by this point, with the Festival coming in two weeks but it’s been a very busy year. But don’t mistake my relative silence for absence. Of COURSE the CurtJazz crew will be there, in Piedmont Park this Memorial Day weekend – diggin’ the music, chatting with the artists and reporting back on what’s happening.
Curt's Jazz Cafe 