In case you missed the last one…
Jill Scott, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3 (Hidden Beach): I don’t much care for “Hate on Me,” which lacks the harmonic interest of Scott’s best work, and at first I was put off by the simplified Mahavishnu sample on the title track. But the album gets under your skin and the sound is marvelous.
Ali Farka Toure, Red & Green (Nonesuch/World Circuit): Amazing ’80s twofer from the late Malian guitarist/vocalist. Gritty, stripped down acoustic guitar, “desert blues” vocals, clickety-clack percussion, the sound of the earth.
Hugh Hopper, Numero D’Vol (MoonJune): Dreamy riff-based music for electric quartet, by the Soft Machine bassist with Simon Picard on tenor, Steve Franklin on keys and Charles Hayward on drums. There are two other Soft Machine-related discs out from MoonJune: I’m not blown away by Steam from the group Soft Machine Legacy, but the Delta Saxophone Quartet’s Dedicated to You … but you weren’t listening is a most worthy item.
Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions (Columbia Legacy): A great companion to my colleague Howard Mandel’s new book, Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz, which makes the case for ’70s Miles as an avant-garde proposition, not a commercial ploy. Bonus: Tom Terrell’s final set of liner notes.
Michel Petrucciani, Oracle’s Destiny (Owl/Sunnyside): Early solo piano set from the prodigious Frenchman. Since his untimely death in 1999 we’ve been blessed with steady reissues, many from the old Owl catalog. There’s also a new Dreyfus DVD that includes “Non-Stop Travels with Michel Petrucciani,” a moving hour-long documentary. I’d forgotten how young he was (36) when he left us.
Jaki Byard, Sunshine of My Soul (HighNote): Gary Giddins, in the current Jazz Times, writes a column that I’d considered doing myself — mainly about this incredible solo-piano discovery from 1978, but also Jaki’s presence on Cornell 1964, the equally valuable Charles Mingus find from Blue Note. There’s one more that Giddins doesn’t mention: Charles Mingus In Paris: The Complete America Session on Sunnyside, featuring yet more Jaki.
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