Sorry for the abrupt gear-shift, but I’ve been meaning to put up some recent musical highlights.
—François Moutin (bass) played the 55 Bar on Thursday, Feb. 2. If I see a better jazz show this year I’ll be surprised. The quartet had Joel Frahm on tenor, Jim Ridl on keys and Ari Hoenig on drums. I’d been under the weather for days, so I had to force myself to go out, but a lineup like this I knew I couldn’t miss. I was 100 percent right. Most of the music was Moutin’s, but they also played Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” and routed the place. Moutin’s quartet with his twin brother Louis (a drummer) is solid, but there’s nothing like hearing François with Hoenig (until recently the two were partners in Jean-Michel Pilc’s trio). And I’d hate to be a tenor player in NYC with Joel Frahm stalking the streets.
—Elmo Hope’s Trio and Quintet, reissued as part of Blue Note’s Connoisseur Series, is extraordinary. Aside from having one of the greatest names in jazz, pianist Hope (1923-1967) was one of the best and most underrated heirs to Bud Powell. These sessions, spanning 1953-1957, remind me of The Amazing Bud Powell quite a bit—the mix of trio and quintet tracks, the stellar tenor performances of Frank Foster and Harold Land (recalling Sonny Rollins with Bud in 1949).
—Frank Macchia‘s Mo’ Animals (Cacophony, Inc.) is quirky fusion out of SoCal, with the leader playing saxes as well as contrabass clarinet, contrabass flute and contrabass ocarina. The sounds are remarkable. The music’s good too, with Billy Childs, Vinny Colaiuta, Grant Geissman and other major pros.
—Songs that changed my week: Fiona Apple’s “Red Red Red” and “Tymps (the sick in the head song)”; Richard and Linda Thompson’s “The Great Valerio”; and Ingrid Jensen‘s space-jazz arrangement of “Everything I Love” by Cole Porter, on her new ArtistShare disc At Sea.
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