Tony Allen – There Is No End

 

Title: There Is No End
Artist: Tony Allen
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: April 30, 2021

 

One could not ask for a more powerful posthumous album than Tony Allen’s There Is No End. The legendary Nigerian-born Afrobeat drummer and former musical director of Fela Kuti’s Africa ’70 group died last April at the age of 79. In the past two decades, Allen had become known for his eclectic collaborations, seamlessly moving from jazz to highlife, and funk to hip hop and electronica. Such is the case with this new release, featuring the Afrobeat elder engaging with younger singers and rappers who represent the full spectrum of the African diaspora including Sampa the Great, Danny Brown, Lava La Rue, and more.

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Dr. Lonnie Smith – Breathe

 

Title: Breathe
Artist: Dr. Lonnie Smith
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: March 26, 2021

 

The reigning master of the Hammond B-3 organ, Dr. Lonnie Smith has ruled the soul jazz scene from his keyboard for over five decades. Still a prolific recording artist, the musical icon has just released Breathe, his third album for Blue Note in the last five years, all produced by the label’s president, Don Was. The majority of the tracks were recorded live at the Jazz Standard in New York City in 2017 during Smith’s 75th birthday celebration, in the seemingly long-ago days when one could hang out at a crowded club on the weekends. Fans weary of social distancing can now vicariously join the celebration through album’s eight tracks.

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R+R=NOW – Live

 

Title: Live
Artist: R+R=NOW 
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: February 12, 2021

 

Musical giant Robert Glasper is one of the music industry’s heavy hitters that just can’t miss. The Houston native, who became most iconic during the development of the neo soul and late hip hop music era, has had the pleasure of touching numerous projects and performing with countless artists over the past three decades including the likes of Bilal, Yassin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), Jill Scott and many others. Glasper has also been awarded multiple Grammy and Emmy awards for his contribution to both music and film. His latest project, R+R=NOW Live, is yet another addition to his substantial legacy.

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Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers – Just Coolin’

 

Title: Just Coolin’
Artist: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: July 17, 2020

 

This reissue of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers’ Just Coolin’ is from a 1959 studio album that was never released, most likely due to the fact that four of the six tracks were included several months later on a pair of live albums recorded at the legendary jazz club Birdland in New York City—Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at the Jazz Corner of the World (vols. 1 & 2, later reissued as a two-CD set.). Consequently, the original studio sessions comprising this release were shelved and are finally seeing the light of day 60 years later.

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Derrick Hodge – Color of Noize

 

Title: Color of Noize
Artist: Derrick Hodge
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, MP3
Release date: June 26, 2020

 

Bassist and composer Derrick Hodge has worked with some of the best, performing on GRAMMY award winning albums by Robert Glasper (as a founding member of the Robert Glasper Experiment) and Terence Blanchard, producing projects with Quincy Jones, and writing/recording with a wide range of other artists across multiple genres, from Kanye West, Q-Tip, and Andre 3000 to Jill Scott, Sade, and Kirk Franklin. Hodge’s innovative arrangements also played an essential role in the powerful performances by Nas and Maxwell with the National Symphony Orchestra, and Common with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Now, on his latest project and his third release for Blue Note Records, Hodge seeks to bridge the divide between urban, jazz and classical music with his new concept album, Color of Noize.

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James Carter Organ Trio – Live From Newport Jazz

 

Title:  Live From Newport Jazz
Artist: James Carter Organ Trio
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: August 30, 2019

 

Saxophone virtuoso and Detroit native James Carter just released his Blue Note label debut, James Carter Organ Trio: Live From Newport Jazz. This album arrives nine years after the last album with his organ trio, At the Crossroads (2011), and his acclaimed orchestral collaboration with composer Roberto Sierra on Caribbean Rhapsody (2011). Carter’s recording of his live performance at the 2018 Newport Jazz festival explores the music of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt from the perspective of Carter’s soul jazz, funk and R&B organ trio. Joined by longtime band members, Hammond B-3 organist Gerard Gibbs and drummer Alexander White, Carter takes us through an “exercise in musical transformation,” or as he says, “a willful attempt to urbanize Gypsy jazz, if you will.” Continue reading

Kendrick Scott Oracle – A Wall Becomes a Bridge

 

Title: A Wall Becomes a Bridge
Artist: Kendrick Scott Oracle
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: April 5, 2019

 

Drummer and composer Kendrick Scott Oracle’s fifth release, A Wall Becomes a Bridge, focuses on “overcoming obstacles both personal and collective.” The album includes long-standing members John Ellis (saxophone), Taylor Eigsti (piano), Mike Moreno (guitar), and Joe Sanders (bass), as well as featured turntablist Jahi Sundance. As the title suggests, Scott conceptually explores the discourse of building a wall as metaphor for unifying people rather than dividing. Continue reading

Marcus Strickland Twi-Life – People of the Sun

 

Title: People of the Sun
Artist: Marcus Strickland Twi-Life
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: November 9, 2018

 

How do you describe an album that crosses musical boundaries and provides socially conscious lyrics, all while sonically tracing the African Diaspora from the past to present as a way to express one’s identity? Words like ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘innovative’ come to mind, but perhaps ‘thought-provoking’ best captures the mission of saxophonist Marcus Strickland’s latest release, People of the Sun. Continue reading

James Francies – Flight

 

Title: Flight
Artist: James Francies
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, MP3
Release date: October 19, 2018

 

Though only 23-years-old, pianist and composer James Francies has been very active on the music scene, performing with prominent jazz artists like Stefon Harris, Pat Metheny, and Eric Harland, as well as hip-hop and R&B artists Common, Lauryn Hill, The Roots, and Bilal, among others. His new 11 track Blue Note debut album, Flight, provides an array of orchestrations drawing on elements of jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and electronic-sounding qualities. With a supportive cast of first-rate musicians—saxophonist Chris Potter, guitarist Mike Moreno, vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Burniss Travis II, drummers Jeremy Dutton and Mike Mitchell, and vocalists YEBBA, Kate Kelsey-Sugg and Chris Turner—Francies takes the listener on a musical journey filled with vibrant grooves intermixed with lush harmonic textures. Continue reading

José James – Lean On Me

 

Title: Lean On Me
Artist: José James
Label: Blue Note
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: September 28, 2018

 

Minnesota-born jazz singer José James is known for combining aspects of jazz, soul, and hip hop to create his own unique style, which has often been described as a modern Gil Scott-Heron. Over the course of his career, James has released six full-length albums that range in style from typical jazz standards to all original works. Now, with his latest album Lean On Me, James pays homage to one of the most respected artists ever, Bill Withers. Continue reading

Laid Black- Marcus Miller

Laid BlackTitle: Laid Black

Artist: Marcus Miller

Label: Blue Note

Formats: CD, MP3

Release date: June 1, 2018

 

World-renowned bass player and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller dropped his latest album, Laid Black, over the summer. Released three years after his Afrodeezia project, this album weaves together funk, hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and jazz into an amalgam of sounds. Continue reading

Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life – Nihil Novi

marcus strickland_nihil Novi

Title: Nihil Novi

Artist: Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life

Label: Blue Note

Formats: CD, MP3

Release Date: April 15,2016

 

 

Jazz is the DNA of Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life’s album Nihil Novi, produced by well-known avant-garde soul singer and bassist, Meshell Ndegeocello. This release is a collection of experimental expressionist jazz, playing upon the listener’s expectations as a strategy to arouse an emotional response. Expressionism is an undercurrent in many of the most recent contemporary jazz releases, such as Kamasi Washington’s The Epic and Terrace Martin’s Velvet Portraits. Perhaps this wave of expressionistic jazz is brought to us by hip hop culture or African American social and political dissent, channeling the emotional component of critique and protest. Might it be part of a larger wave or even school of jazz that the history books might look back on as characteristic of the 2010s? What we know is that Nihil Novi is an album of incredible compositions that are some of the best produced in contemporary jazz. Its songs give a listener some sort of triumphant feeling of melancholy, or what writer Albert Murray would describe as a feeling that can “stomp the blues.”

Every musician delivers on Nihil Novi. Twi-Life is made up of trumpeter Keyon Harrold, bassist Kyle Miles, drummer Charles Haynes, organist Mitch Henry, and keyboardist Masayuki Hirano. Singer Jean Baylor, bassists Pino Palladino and Meshell Ndegeocello, keyboardist James Francies, drummer Chris Dave, guitarist Chris Bruce, and pianist Robert Glasper also contribute. The end product is an album of poignant nuance, thrilling through its multitude of precise sounds and gorgeous songs. If the pieces on Nihil Novi were paintings, they would all be colored in dark hues. All of its songs were expressly composed for this album and fulfill the ambition that much American music has to take a look at the underbelly of things, even though this desire seems to be less present in contemporary jazz than other genres. The record’s songs are poignant, often sounding as if they were deliberately produced to leave us feeling unhinged.

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“Talking Loud” features an excellent blend of saxophone, organ, singing and drumming. While the track’s subdued vocals (sung by Jean Baylor) take on a kind of emotionally numbing effect, the band’s playing is this cut’s most engaging feature. Baylor is also featured on “Alive,” which sounds like an R&B song accompanied by a jazz combo. On these two tracks, the vocalist takes turns with Marcus Strickland at being the center of attention, but ultimately the band’s leader delivers a more impressive performance.  “Sissoko’s Voyage” might be one of this year’s best jazz songs—its melody and rhythm exuding a spiritual, infectious optimism. “Cherish Family,” “Celestelude,” “Drive,” and “Mantra” are all expertly composed and played, while “Inevitable” smacks of soul jazz and is perhaps the one song in which Baylor’s vocals shine brightest. “Cycle” may be one of the very best compositions of the year. It speaks to eros and ethos: the pursuit of both laughter and seriousness through balanced living. This is jazz that plays to our notions of play and of contemplation, creating emotional balance through musical proportions. Some will also be reminded of Miles Davis’s experiments in jazz fusion in the later part of his career.

Nihil Novi is one of the best jazz releases so far this year, and is also one of the strongest efforts by a group in any genre. Each and every song is surprising, all the while being deeply rooted in the “stomping the blues” tradition that informs most excellent African American music, and informed by its own moment in American cultural history.

 

Reviewed by Adolf Alzuphar

Dr. Lonnie Smith – Evolution

dr lonnie smith_evolution

Title: Evolution

Artist: Dr. Lonnie Smith

Label: Blue Note

Format: CD

Release date: January 29, 2016

 

 

Hammond B3 master Dr. Lonnie Smith returns to Blue Note Records for his first release on the label in 45 years.  Evolution does not really represent a change in Smith’s sound, but it does show the seasoned bandleader’s development into a musician who leads a tight, tasteful ensemble.  Smith’s signature funk-jazz is present in droves, which is well worth a listen in its own right.  What truly makes Evolution stand apart from the herd of jazz releases thus far in 2016 is the organist’s assemblage of master players. Breaking from the traditional organ trio format on all but two tracks, Smith has enlisted several luminary musicians to help him out on this record.  The core group consists of Smith on Organ, Joe Dyson on drums, Jonathan Blake on drums — yes, this group has two drummers (!), Jonathan Kreisberg on guitar, and John Ellis on a variety of woodwinds, including tenor sax, flute, and bass clarinet.  Other jazz superstars also make appearances, with Robert Glasper dropping by for the album’s funky quote-filled opening number “Play it Back” and saxophonist Joe Lovano on two cuts, “Afrodesia,” and “For Heaven’s Sake.”

In addition to Smith’s compelling original cuts, the group explores two standards, “Straight No Chaser” and “My Favorite Things” as a trio, with Kreisberg on guitar and Blake on drums.  These cuts are true to the conventions of this format, and are compelling readings of the tunes that showcase the core group’s interpretative vision, making the oft-played tunes fresh in their gifted hands.  The original numbers slay, too. Kreisberg gets the opportunity to dig into his wah-wah on “Talk About This,” a funk chant a la The Meters and “African Suite” settles into its multi-layered polyrhythmic groove.

Dr. Lonnie Smith is certainly one of the most versatile and dynamic players to ever helm the B3, and Evolution is a compelling reminder of why the organist deserves his honorific title.

Reviewed by Matthew Alley

Loverly


Title: Loverly
Artist: Cassandra Wilson
Label: Blue Note
Catalog No.: 50999 5 2169
Release date: June 10, 2008

Of the various ingredients that go into making a music recording masterpiece, the following items are likely to be placed at the top of the list: the selection of highly skilled yet creative musicians who excel in the selected musical genre; musicians who complement one another within the musical recording unit; and a recording environment conducive to optimal performance. All of these features are realized in Cassandra Wilson’s self-produced recording, Loverly. The performance represents a return to Wilson’s jazz and blues roots, following her more pop influenced recent releases, such as Glamoured (2003) and Thunderbird (2006). In Loverly, as in Wilson’s earlier jazz recordings, the singer is both the centerpiece and a collaborative ensemble player. Her presence is palpable but not overbearing, leaving room for, and even welcoming, creative interplay between the various members of the ensemble.

Wilson’s voice and musicianship are in superb shape. Singing in tune and at ease, she transforms the repertoire into her own artistic statements, occasionally laughing, moaning, snapping her fingers, or cueing the band with verbal comments from the background. At a few points during the recording, she comfortably wanders to a corner of the room where she briefly sings, accessing the acoustics of space and environment available to her. The recording environment itself is key, taking place in a rented house in Wilson’s hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, away from the more stressful surroundings of New York where most (if not all) of the musicians reside.

The ensemble is comprised of mutually familiar musicians who have played with one another in various groups and situations, in some cases, reaching back over a decade. Mostly grounded in the jazz idiom, they each bring unique strengths. In particular, pianist Jason Moran, a brilliant virtuosic improviser, inspires rather than overpowers on jazz standards such as “Lover Come Back to Me” and “Caravan,” as well as the jazz reinterpretation of the popular film tune, “Gone with the Wind.” Guitarist Martin Sewell dominates on the two blues tunes with a funky rendition of “St. James Infirmary” and a slide guitar basis for “Dust My Broom.” A driving rhythmic undercurrent between drummer Herlin Riley and Nigerian percussionist Lekan Babalola is laid out on the recording. The ensemble is completed with Lonnie Plaxico on bass, and there are guest appearances from bassist Reggie Veil and trumpeter Nicholas Payton.

In all, Loverly is one of Wilson’s best recordings to date and a welcome return to her roots. Loverly indeed!

Posted by Karen Faye Taborn