By Dee Dee McNeil
June 10, 2024
This is the 45th annual celebration of Black Music Month, established in 1979. That was a decade after a time that was labeled, ‘The Civil Rights Era.’ President Jimmy Carter designated June as a month to celebrate the cultural and historical significance of Black Music. Ever since that declaration back in 1979, Black Music Month has been commemorated. Credit, however, must be given to Kenny Gamble, the composer, producer of the dynamic duo of Gamble and Huff. Kenny Gamble and a couple of other associates formed an organization in 1978 called, The Black Music Association. It was that organization that inspired the President to create Black Music Month. Their idea was to promote, protect, and perpetuate the business of Black music. The original purpose was to prove that the Black music is both popular and profitable. Black music is a staple of American culture and jazz music is America’s classical music. Jazz originated in the African American community, (specifically in New Orleans, Louisiana), in the late 19th century. Thanks to Congressman John Conyers Jr., from Michigan, in 1987 a congressional resolution #57 made jazz a “National American Treasure.” Black music is loved and appreciated worldwide, with jazz influencing every nation across all continents. People of all cultures enjoy, listen to, and play Black Music.
STEVE TURRE – “SANYAS” – Smoke Sessions Records
Steve Turre, trombone/shells; Nicholas Payton, trumpet; Ron Blake, tenor saxophone; Isaiah J. Thompson, piano; Buster Williams, bass; Lenny White, drums.
Sanyas is a Sanskrit word that means renunciation or purification. The Sanyasi people are Hindu monks. They forsake materialistic things to dedicate their lives in pursuit of the spiritual, walking on a path to enlightenment. That explains the title of this album “Sanyas” and the first original composition by Steve Turre. It moves across my listening room like a chant. The repetitive melody line is ever-present, even when the drums of Lenny White are soloing. This music rolls like a passenger plane across space, carrying me along with it as it propels its way to a creative destination.
I discovered, while reading the CD cover, that in the early 1970s, when Turre wrote this piece of music, he was studying yoga with Swami Satchidananda, the famed guru of Alice Coltrane. It was the orange color of the Sanyasi robes that inspired his song. Steve Turre has been a practicing Nichiren Buddhist since 1976.
“Music evokes colors. Different harmonies or rhythms evoke different colors. All the musicians on this album are master musicians, so I thought it would be interesting to revisit the tune for a fresh interpretation and see what these masters would bring to it,” Turre said in his liner notes.
Although Turre has a list of musicians who have inspired him greatly, perhaps his reverence for the great trumpeter, Woody Shaw, is the most notable. It was Shaw who helped him lay the foundation for the trombonist’s most adventurous musical decisions. You hear this adventurous attitude in every arrangement on this album.
“It’s like a cat. If you throw a cat up in the air, it always lands on its feet. You’ve got to figure out how to do the same thing musically.”
It’s funny that nearly fifty years ago Steve Turre recorded “Sanyas” on his 1975 album release called “The Moontrane.” It became Turre’s first published composition and his first solo on a record. Now, the song marches onto the scene like gang-busters, totally fresh and power-driven by these amazing jazz musicians.
It’s the bonus tune on this album that shows you the quality of tone and style that Steve Turre brings to the bandstand. Many people say that the trombone is most similar to the human voice. Turre’s presentation of the old standard “These Foolish Things” proves that reference to the trombone sounding like a vocalist to be true. Turre applies the plunger technique during this arrangement.
“To me, the plunger is a very important part of the tradition of jazz trombone. It’s something that’s not a part of orchestral music. It originated with the Ellington Band. It’s one of my three voices,” Steve Turre explains history and technique.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTRpkvq6v4
The group plays an up-tempo and original arrangement of “All the Things You Are” followed by the beautiful ballad called “Wishful Thinking,” another Turre composition. This music was recorded ‘live’ at the Smoke club that Turre has been playing at since they first opened their doors. It has become one of the most authentic jazz rooms in the city of New York. Every song on this album is represented by master musicians like Isaiah J. Thompson on piano, who plays a sensuous solo on “Wishful Thinking.” The bass of the great Buster Williams is solid as a brick basement throughout this production. Nicholas Payton colors this music with his trumpet and Ron Blake adds texture and tenacity on tenor saxophone when he solos on “Mr. Kenyatta.” The three-horn frontline introduces this tune with harmonic drive and excitement. Afterwards, the group swings hard. Here is wonderful, heart-felt jazz. It’s an album I will enjoy playing many times over!
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WADADA LEO SMITH / AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS – “CENTRAL PARK’S MOSAICS OF RESERVOIR, LAKE, PATHS, AND GARDENS” – Red Hook Records
Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet/composer; Amina Claudine Myers, piano/Hammond B-3 Organ/composer.
Smith and Myers are both Chicagoans, transplanted from Southern roots. Smith arrived from Mississippi and Myers came from Arkansas. This is the very first duo album by Wadada Leo Smith and the newly awarded NEA Jazz master pianist, Amina Claudine Myers. I hope it will not be their only duo recording. I want more!
They open with a Smith composition titled, “Conservatory Gardens.” Wadada Leo Smith has written all the compositions except a piece called “When Was” that Amina Claudine Myers composed. Smith’s crystal-clear trumpet tone blends seamlessly with her piano accompaniment. Together they paint nature scenes and conjure up landscapes with their musical merging, along with rich, spiritual sound fields. At the fade of this composition, Myers trembles her fingers in the upper register of the piano, making music that reminds me of cascading waterfalls.
The “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir” composition has Smith’s trumpet blasting into my listening room like morning sunshine. There is a texture created between these two musicians. Myers has now turned to the Hammond B-3 organ. She adds richness to their arrangement. Myers returns to the grand piano on “Central Park at Sunset” and introduces Smith’s trumpet with a brief, but powerful piano solo. The pianist has composed “When Was” and it is the fourth track. There is something tender and transparent wrapped inside her solo piano presentation. I find myself leaning into the music, as if drawn by a string wrapped around my eardrum.
In 2015, Wadada Leo Smith composed and recorded a piece of music called Amina Claudine Myers. The admiration and respect this tribute song reflected was perhaps the preface to this amazing union of music and spirit. These two are longtime friends from their Chicago days as part of the AACM organization. Today, their music unfolds like new curtains, hanging together in perfect complement to each other and letting the songs, like summer breezes, flow through them. They create a mosaic of trust, each allowing the other to co-exist and merge, like sea and sky. There is nothing superficial here. This is a lesson in prudence, for all good things take time.
I played this album twice and soaked up the beauty of two master musicians, who meet in the midst of creativity, improvisation, freedom, and spiritual awakening. I came away from this music feeling brighter, lighter, prayerful, and enlightened.
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SOUL JAZZ – “SOMETHING ELSE featuring VINCENT HERRING” – Smoke Sessions Records
Jeremy Pelt, trumpet; Vincent Herring, alto saxophone; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Paul Bollenback, guitar; David Kikoski, piano; Essiet Essiet, bass; Otis Brown III, drums.
Alto saxophonist, Vincent Herring, assembled this band based on his own vision and deep-rooted love for the soul jazz tradition. The group opens with a swinging rendition of the popular jazz tune, “Filthy McNasty.” David Kikoski takes a spirited piano solo.
“We’re like a family and the connecting thread is the Mingus Big Band that includes several of the players on this recording,” Kikoski said.
“We all grew up listening to the same kind of music. My mother was a serious jazz fan. … Hardly a day went by that I didn’t hear the sound of Eddie Harris,” Herring described how his love of soul jazz began.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXbJF4Dw11U
This is a feel-good project, played by a group of A-listers who blend ‘swing’ and Straight-ahead jazz with Motown funk and R&B/blues grooves. In a historic way, this group may be mirroring Dr. Portia Maultsby’s Soul Review, founded at Indiana University in 1971. This was America’s first collegiate Black popular music ensemble, which recently celebrated their 50th anniversary. They are a group who made a huge impression bringing soul and R&B into academia. Herring’s Soul Jazz group perpetuates Dr. Maultsby’s Soul Review idea on this production, adding quite a bit of pure jazz magic to their funky performance.
Back in the 70’s, there was a popular dance in the Black community called ‘the Chicken.” Pee Wee Ellis wrote a tune celebrating that era and that dance. The Soul Jazz ensemble covers this tune. Below Herring plays this funk tune ‘live’ with James Carter sitting in with his group.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYgCb1q8eVk
The ensemble reaches deeply into the blues on a Stanley Turrentine tune called “Too Blue” that quickly becomes one of my favorites on this album. Paul Bollenback digs deep-down and dirty on his guitar, setting the mood before the horns strut in with both Herring on alto and Wayne Escoffery on tenor sax taking formidable solos. Kikoski improvises on piano while Essiet Essiet (on bass) and drummer, Otis Brown III, lock hands to hold the groove tightly in place. This is followed by an Eddie Harris composition titled, “Mean Greens.” Jeremy Pelt’s trumpet shines like new pennies on a tune called, “Slow Drag” where his sexy horn burnishes the moment with a throw-back to slow-dancing at a blue basement party. He rejuvenizes this Donald Byrd composition, putting his own spin on the familiar tune.
This is music that will make you move to the groove. It uplifts each listening moment with joy.
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MATT WILSON – “GOOD TROUBLE” – Palmetto Records
Matt Wilson, drums/glockenspiel; Ben Allison, bass; Jeff Lederer, tenor saxophone/clarinet; Dawn Clement, piano/voice; Tia Fuller, alto saxophone.
55-years ago, standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a young John Lewis was nearly killed by white vigilantes while marching for Civil Rights. Congressman Lewis urged the crowd to “Speak up. Speak out! Get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciEMeX5-GYI
The legacy of Congressman John Lewis has inspired millions, including drummer, Matt Wilson with this new album titled, “Good Trouble.” The release date of June 14th also simultaneously celebrates Wilson’s 60th birthday. This is his fourteenth release as a leader for Palmetto Records. In the aftermath of John Lewis dying, followed by then Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away, Wilson was moved to write a three-part suite that celebrated these two political leaders he admired.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zn8oFkr3Q
The suite begins midway through the album with the tune “RBG.” It is a lively salute to the late justice Ginsburg. Dawn Clement establishes the melody on piano. When the horns enter, Jeff Lederer on Tenor sax and Tia Fuller on alto sax harmonize, before they expand to solo improvisation. At the end of this “Good Trouble” suite, the band chants Ruth Bader Ginsburg in unison as part of their fading melody. It’s a very touching tribute to a great lady.
The second part of the suite is titled “Walk With the Wind” and is more somber and less jubilant than the opening tune. This is a nod to the John Lewis 1998 autobiography, “Walking with the Wind” A Memoir of the Movement.” Matt Wilson pumps the rhythm up to a Holy Roller church groove on the final piece of the suite, making me want to reach for my tambourine and join in the musical excitement.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjkumECFMLw
This album also celebrates the iconic pianist Geri Allen with his opening song, “Fireplace.” She is one of several departed masters that Wilson dedicates this recording to, including Geri who died June of 2017, pianist Frank Kimbrough passed Dec of 2020, Carla Bley (an important leader, composer, pianist in the free jazz movement died Oct of 2023) and trumpeter, jazz legend, Ron Miles made his transition March of 2022. These are artists who have touched Matt Wilson’s life and music.
Dwan Clement offers us a vocal representation of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders” that’s light and bright. Then comes the Gary Bartz composition “Libra” that showcases Wilson’s drum skills and spotlights an exciting saxophone solo. Matt Wilson hopes this album will represent a spirit of community and inclusivity, while reminding the listeners to be active in searching for truth, justice, peace and love.
“Representative Lewis was such a dignified leader. Every time he spoke, he displayed so much integrity, clarity, and honesty without a trace of bitterness, despite everything he’d faced in his life. He was a remarkable human being,” Wilson reminds us, closed with his original tune called, “CommUnity.”
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IVANNA CUESTA – “A LETTER TO THE EARTH” – Orenda Records
Ivanna Cuesta, drums/composer/producer; Kris Davis, piano; Max Ridley, bass; Ben Solomon, tenor saxophone; Pauli Camou, spoken word.
In 2015, Ivanna Cuesta graduated from the Dominican Republic Conservatory of Music. She attended Berklee College of Music in America, graduating in 2020. Her exceptional talent caught the eye of several notable jazz artists. She studied with Neal Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Francisco Mela and Tia Fuller. In 2019, Cuesta won first place in the 18-39 year-old category of the “Hit Like a Girl 2019” contest. This led to her performing at the PASIC 2019 Concert, Clinics and Master Classes experience in Indianapolis.
She has already toured the world, working on stages across continents and with some of the world’s greatest artists including Esperanza Spalding, Aaron Parks, Kandance Spring, Alisa Amador (a Winner of the 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Contest), Socrates Garcia Latin jazz Orchestra, Jane Bunnett, Pepe Rivero and many, many others.
In 2022, Ivanna Cuesta was selected to become part of the Next Jazz Legacy Program, where she worked and was mentored by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding. Now, she offers us her debut album that reflects not only her percussive excellence, but her concern about our world and Mother Earth. That inspired the title, “A Letter to the Earth.” Terri Lyne Carrington calls her a “triple threat as a drummer, composer and producer.”
Ivanna Cuesta composed every song on this debut album. She opens with a song called “Chaos” with pianist Kris Davis setting up the melody line. Ben Solomon enters on tenor saxophone and Max Ridley’s bassline walks steadily beneath the track. This composition sounds a little like something Thelonious Monk would have composed. Ridley’s bass double-times the tempo beneath the Davis piano solo with Ivanna Cuesta slapping the beat into place on drums. A flurry of notes tumble out of the piano. Cuesta’s drums move with the tempo changes, propelling the tune “Chaos” forward. This is impressionistic free jazz. Track #2 is titled “Humans vs Humans” and is quieter than the first arrangement. Cuesta began to unravel her revolutionary thoughts about climate change and humanity’s dance with self-destruction.
“Climate change is a reality, and everything that I experienced as a child has been disappearing so fast. … Now, they are just memories,” she writes in her liner notes.
On this second track you hear more of her blend of free improvisation with electronic elements. The title track, “A Letter to the Earth” is next. It starts with the rumble of her cymbals, like distant thunder. The upper register of the piano tinkles, like melodic raindrops caught up in the storm. Then Ben Solomon’s saxophone plays against the musical sound effects. This song is warm and inviting at the beginning, with interesting chord changes. Max Ridley lets his bass play like a rabbit in the brush, hopping from note to note with a calculated freedom. Solomon’s sax joins in the melodic playing field, along with the Davis piano. All the while, Cuesta adds color and charisma with her trap drums. I fell in love with this tune and its creative arrangement.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHiPpqOrAdA
On a tune called “Duality” Cuesta and pianist Kris Davis create a mood, pulling African rhythms and tribal roots to the surface of this arrangement. It’s a captivating presentation, with Cuesta’s drum talents sparking in the spotlight like freshly polished diamonds.
On the last composition, a voice speaks to us in Spanish, floating above the electronic track. Similar to an interlude, it features Pauli Camou, who speaks for a minute and twenty-eight seconds. I wish I knew what she summarized, and that the translation was in the press package.
This entire album is a lesson in what makes jazz so international, infectious and hypnotic. This music is born of freedom and the belief that souls can be touched by musical phrases and musicians can find common ground along with excitement, playing together in improvised ways, always seeking to expand horizons and create change. I wait, with much anticipation, to see what Ivanna Cuesta and her group will bring to the next project.
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NOAH HAIDU, BUSTER WILLIAMS, BILLY HART – “STANDARDS II” – Sunnyside Records
Noah Haidu, piano; Buster Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums.
I have come to love and respect this trio, comprised of the talented, young pianist Noah Haidu, joined by seasoned veterans Buster Williams and Billy Hart. This follow-up album to their last release called “Standards” is quite exploratory, tiptoeing around the Avant-garde. Their current release titled “Standards II” opens with “Over the Rainbow” but I bet you won’t recognize it right away. Noah Haidu dances through the chord changes, leading us on a maze of melodies, before we finally arrive at the one that Harold Arlen wrote.
They follow this with the beautiful ballad “Someone to Watch Over Me” letting Buster Williams’ bass lines stitch through the arrangements like colorful threads, needling Haidu’s heartfelt lyricism on piano with brilliance. The Williams’ solo is a piece of stardust captured on disc.
Their rendition of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s “Up Jumped Spring” does summersaults around my listening room, daring me to find ‘letter A’ and where the melody should start. The trio does its own unique introspection of this tune before settling into Hubbard’s catchy melody. This production is full of wonderful surprises. Noah Haidu wades through the chord changes with his own perspective on melody and harmony. This entire album is best explained by Haidu himself.
“After collaborating with me on recordings dedicated to pianists Keith Jarrett and Kenny Kirkland, Billy Hart asked me why I had decided to focus on such experimental artists. Then, he asked if I consider myself to be avant-garde. While I hadn’t necessarily thought of Keith or Kenny in those terms, it’s an interesting question, especially coming from Billy, who is often associated with the Avant-garde. In fact, I don’t identify exclusively with any particular camp – – be it postmodern/experimental or straight ahead. … Various environments bring out different aspects of my playing, and that is one facet that emerged on “Standards II.”
They jump into a hard bop bag on “After You’ve Gone” playing at jet plane speed and reinventing the tune in a boisterous way, featuring Billy Hart on drums.
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Tags: AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS, BILLY HART, BUSTER WILLIAMS, David Kikoski, Essiet Essiet, Isaiah J. Thompson, Ivanna Cuesta, Jazz, jeremy pelt, Lenny White, Matt Wilson, Nicholas Payton, NOAH HAIDU, Otis Brown III, Paul Bollenback, Ron Blake, Soul Jazz, Steve Turre, vincent herring, Wadada leo Smith, Wayne Escoffery
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